Friday's Men's Tennis Roundup

Men's Tennis Championships Results

ETSU 4, The Citadel 0

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The top-seeded ETSU men’s tennis team advanced to the semifinals of the 2015 Southern Conference Men’s Tennis Tournament with a 4-0 win over No. 8 The Citadel.

The Bucs quickly grabbed the doubles point in the match to take a 1-0 lead as Sebastian Yllera and Conner Huertas secured an 8-4 decision over Connor Grady and Oliver Dedding at No. 3.  Diego Nunez and Robert Herrera earned an 8-3 win over Nicholas Bradley and Jackson Pride at No. 2 doubles to earn the team point.

Yllera give the Bucs a 2-0 lead in the match with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Dedding at No. 5.  Herrera posted a similar 6-0, 6-0 win over Grady which put the Bucs up 3-0 in the match.  Huertas secured a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Pride at No. 4 to earn the fourth team point of the match.


Samford 4, UNCG 3

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The fourth-seeded Samford Bulldogs pulled out a 4-3 decision over No. 5 UNCG in a quarterfinal match of the 2015 Southern Conference Men’s Tennis Tournament Friday afternoon.  With the match tied 3-3 Justin Ghavami pulled out a three-set win (6-3, 4-6, 7-5) over Cameron Smith at No. 4 to give the Bulldogs the win.

Samford opened the match by picking up the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 3.

UNCG evened the match 1-1 when Connor Thompson defeated Austin Akers, 6-2, 6-0.  The Bulldogs retook the lead when Edouardo Lourido scored a straight-sets win (6-0, 6-2) over Gaston Murray at No. 5 singles.

Daniel Mack’s 6-4, 7-6 win over Trey Carter at No. 3 singles pulled the match even, 2-2.  The Bulldogs then took a 3-2 lead when Jake Faundez claimed a 7-6, 6-1 win over William Albright.

A tightly contested match at No. 1 saw UNCG’s Randy Phillips top Fares Kilani, 7-5, 7-6, which set the stage for the final match at No. 4.

Wofford 4, Mercer 3

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Wofford’s David Sklar picked up a three-set win at No. 5 singles to give the Terriers their lone lead of the day and clinch a 4-3 win over Mercer in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Men’s Tennis Championship on Friday at the John E. Reeves Tennis Center.

The sixth-seeded Terriers will now face either No. 2 Furman or No. 7 Chattanooga in the semifinals at Furman’s Mickel Tennis Complex on Saturday at 2 p.m.

In a thrilling match that saw five of the six singles bouts go to three sets, the homestanding Terriers twice forged ties in the team score before finally getting the decisive win from Sklar.

The junior from Huntingdon Valley, Pa., dropped his opening set to the Bears’ Arsav Mohanty by a 6-3 count before rallying for a 7-6 win in the second set and rolling to a 6-1 win in the third set against the Bears’ second-team All-SoCon selection to send the Terriers through to the semis.

Mercer, the No. 3 seed, had been up 2-0 early in the match after claiming the doubles point and the first singles decision of the day.

At No. 2 doubles, Austin Emmet and Oliver Snaider picked up an 8-6 decision over Wofford’s Haris Poric and Trevor Gotkowski. The Bears’ Sam Philp and Anderson Scarpa topped Sklar and Parks Thompson by an identical score at No. 3 as Mercer took the 1-0 lead.

Scarpa extended Mercer’s lead with his 6-2, 6-4 win over Parks Schoen at No. 4 singles before first-team All-SoCon pick Rob Galloway put the Terriers on the board with his 6-0, 2-6, 6-3 win over Snaider at No. 1.

Wofford tied the match at 2 with Thompson’s 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Manuel de Luis at No. 6, but Mercer reclaimed the lead with a win at No. 3. There, Philp, the SoCon Freshman of the Year and a second-team all-conference performer, pulled out a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win over Walker Heffron to give the Bears their final lead at 3-2.

The Terriers would knot the match at 3 with yet another three-set win, as All-SoCon first-teamer Poric recovered from a first-set loss to claim a 2-6, 7-6, 6-2 win over Arnav Mohanty and set the stage for Sklar’s match-clincher.

Furman 4, Chattanooga 0

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The second-seeded Furman men’s tennis team blanked No. 7 Chattanooga, 4-0, Friday in the opening round of the 2015 Southern Conference Championships at the Reeves Tennis Center in Spartanburg, S.C.

The Paladins claimed two doubles matches to clinch the opening point.  Juniors Matt Browne and Ben Horst teamed up to beat Lucas Plesky and John Peacey, 8-7(2), in the top-flighted contest, and sophomore Adam Steryous and freshman Cameron Green defeated Nic Wilson and Pavels Grigorjevs, 8-1, at number two to capture the point.  The flight three match was unfinished.

In singles action, the Paladins picked up three quick two-set wins for the team victory.  Steryous bested Grigorjevs, 6-2, 6-1, at number one, and Brown topped Plesky, 6-3, 6-2, at flight two.  In the flight six match-up, sophomore Juan Sheppard posted a 6-1, 6-2 win over Gino Delavalle.  The remaining matches were unfinished per SoCon rules.