Five-match skid snapped with 4-0 sweep from men’s tennis of Mars Hill
In a desperately needed win to keep the Eagles in contention for the conference tournament, C-N swept the Lions at every line.
MARS HILL, N.C. – In a desperately needed win to keep the Eagles in contention for the conference tournament, C-N swept the Lions at every line.
With the Eagles fighting for a playoff spot and just two SAC matches to play after this, a win was much needed for the men's squad, who currently occupy the 8th slot in the SAC standings and tournament.
C-N has now won 11 of the 17 matches between the two squads and has won the last 10 in a row against the Lions.
"Good to get the win we needed to start our week," said head coach Nate Gangelhoff. "Good moments in doubles and solid play in singles to feel good about our next two matches."
In doubles, the twos and threes wiped their hands clean of the Lions. Max Stollecker and Louis Keenan took a 6-2 win at second doubles, and the pair are now a win away from .500 as a team at 7-8. Darko Kolevski and Giancarlo Rosario collected their second win as a pair at the third line. The two took a 6-3 win to give the Eagles the doubles point.
Yassin Ali and Leonard Baecker were tied 6-6 at the one spot when C-N took the point.
Leonard Baecker didn't let that doubles tie stall him at fourth singles, though. The sophomore captain swept straight through Yasen Kehayaminchev in 6-0, 6-0 sets. The win marks the 6th singles victory of the year for the German and his second straight.
Yassin Ali took a victory by default but was in line to take a win. The freshman had taken set one 7-5 and was up 4-2 before the match ended. Ali is now 4-7 in his singles matches this season and has won the last two in a row.
With the Eagles up 3-0, Max Stollecker landed a victory at second singles in matching sets 6-3, 6-3. Stollecker has the best singles record on the Eagles squad at 8-5. The sophomore is 2-0 in the South Atlantic Conference matches that have finished.
When the match finished, the other singles matches were nearly tied. Louis Keenan lost the first set at first singles 6-1, but was winning 5-4 in the second. On the other end of the lineup at 6, Giancarlo Rosario lost set one 6-3, but battled back to a 6-4 win in the second. He was winning 3-2 in the final frame before C-N closed.
Darko Kolevski was locked in a dogfight at fifth singles. The match was locked at 6-6 and Kolevski was up in a tiebreaker up 16-14.
With a 3-6 record in the SAC, the Eagles are tied with UVA Wise in conference wins; however, C-N would win the tiebreaker with Wise thanks to their 4-3 win back in March. C-N is 5-14 on the season and snapped a five-match losing streak with this win.
"We also remained mentally tough and focused. Hoping that everything we have worked on all comes together more and more," said Gangelhoff.
C-N will move on to their final two regular-season matches of the year against #26 Lincoln Memorial on Thursday, April 9th before wrapping up the season with Newberry on Saturday, April 11th. For updates, follow @CN_Eagles on X and Instagram, or Carson-Newman Athletics on Facebook. Full coverage is also available at cneagles.com.
