SAC Tournament berth clinched by men’s tennis with win over Newberry
The Eagles beat the Wolves 4-1 to earn the 8th seed at the conference tournament next week.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Eagles beat the Wolves 4-1 to earn the 8th seed at the conference tournament next week.
With the win, C-N finishes the regular season at 6-15 overall and 4-7 in conference action. As the 8th seed in the tournament, the Eagles will see #9 Catawba in the first round of the SAC Championship Tournament.
"Incredibly proud of our guys today. They knew the stakes and handled the pressure," said head coach Nate Gangelhoff. "I challenged them today to be the most energetic and focused they had been all year, and they rose above it all. A second straight year to the conference tournament is great, and it's also a standard for our program."
It looked like this match might go the other way at the start of the day, after doubles did not fall in the Eagles' favor.
At first doubles, Yassin Ali and Leonard Baecker fell 6-4, and at third doubles, Darko Kolevski and Giancarlo Rosario lost by the same score. However, Max Stollecker and Louis Keenan picked up their 8th win as a pair. The two sophomores took a 6-2 victory at the second line.
Then, in singles, the only players not to finish were the first and sixth singles players. Max Stollecker used his doubles momentum to win 6-4, 6-4 and become the first C-N Men's Tennis player to reach 10 wins this season.
The freshman Yassin Ali was right behind him at third singles. Ali took a 6-3, 7-5 win for his fourth of the season.
Leonard Baecker came up big at the fourth line with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Noel Bartz. Baecker finalizes his regular-season singles record at 7-6.
Darko Kolevski leveled his singles record to a .500 with a 6-2, 6-1 win at the fifth line.
Louis Keenan at first singles won his first set 6-2 but fell 6-4 in the second, and was headed into a third set when C-N closed. Giancarlo Rosario lost the first set 6-3, but responded with a win in the second 6-3. His third set was locked at 5-5 when the match went final.
With the win, the Eagles have won two of their last three matches headed into the postseason. The man is also now 8-9 against the Wolves in the all-time series.
Now the Eagles will lock in for the SAC Quarterfinals on Thursday, April 16th against Catawba. First serve is set for 9 a.m. at the Palmetto Tennis Center in Sumter, S.C. For updates, follow @CN_Eagles on X and Instagram, or Carson-Newman Athletics on Facebook. Full coverage is also available at cneagles.com.
