UNC Greensboro 5, Gardner-Webb 2

GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNC Greensboro's men's tennis team swept through doubles play and won four of the six singles matches in taking a 5-2 win over Gardner-Webb at the Starmount Forest Country Club to open the spring slate Saturday.

The Spartans (1-0) got wins at all three doubles positions to take an early 1-0 team lead. Arsel Kumdereli paired with reigning Southern Conference Player of the Year Orcun Seyrek for a win over Evgeny Slesarev and Rafael Altmayer at No. 1, 8-6.

Timion Meijs and William John teamed up for an 8-4 win over the Bulldogs' Adam Knutsson-Sunblad and Roman Piftor at No. 2. Yaroslav Litus and Jacob Wright completed the sweep with a hard-fought, 9-8 (1) win over Andrew Veeder and Jeremie Tardif at No. 3.

In singles play, UNCG got wins at Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 6. Kumdereli downed Knutsson-Sunblad at No. 2, 6-2, 6-3. Wright dropped Veeder at No. 3, 6-1, 6-4, while Litus picked up a win at No. 4 over Altmayer, 6-2, 6-4. Meijs, a true freshman, earned a 7-5, 6-1 win over Tardif at No. 6.

Gardner-Webb (0-4) picked up its singles victories at Nos. 1 and 5. At No. 1, Slesarev rallied to drop Seyrek, 1-6, 7-6 (5), 1-0 (7). Piftor grabbed a 6-4, 6-2 win over John at No. 5.

The Spartans are back in action Sunday at the UNCG Tennis Courts on the UNCG campus, where they will host Winston-Salem State at 2 p.m.

Belmont 5, Chattanooga 2

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team dropped a 5-2 match to Belmont in its home opener at the Hixson Racquet Club today.  The Mocs won two singles matches, but were unable to break through in the win column. 

Chattanooga dropped the doubles point, losing the first two matches.  However, UTC gained some momentum when freshmen Roberto Vieira and Jackson Tresnan won the third doubles contest 8-4. 

Belmont took away that advantage, running out to a 4-0 lead with wins at Nos. 3 and 5 and the match-clincher at No. 4. 

Freshman Ryan Pool put the Mocs on the board with a 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 win over Joao Paoliello at the No. 1 match.  Sophomore Sam Parfitt scored the other singles win at No. 6.  He posted a 7-5, 7-6 (5) win over Felipe Cirne Lima. 

The Mocs fall to 0-3 on the season while Belmont improved to 2-0.  Chattanooga remains at home next weekend when they face Mercer at the Hixson Racquet Club.  Match time is set for 1:00 p.m. (E.S.T.) on Saturday, Feb. 13. 


UNC Wilmington 4, Elon 3

WILMINGTON, N.C. - The doubles point proved the difference in the match as the 74th-ranked Elon men's tennis team couldn't overcome #52 UNC Wilmington at the UNCW Courts on Saturday afternoon. Elon (0-4) and UNCW (3-1) split the six singles matches, but the Seahawks won all three doubles matches to earn the team point and a 4-3 victory.
 
In doubles action, the Elon duo of Chase Helpingstine and Philip Nemec fought valiantly against UNCW's Michael Pereira and Ryan Ybarra before falling 8-7 (8-6) at the top position. The Seahawks' 58th-ranked pair of Kinshuk Sharma and Max Ando Hirsh upended the Phoenix's Alberto Rojas and Eric Turner 8-2 at number two. UNCW completed the doubles sweep as Kosta Blank and Illia Ziamtsou knocked off Carlos Arboleda and Thomas Darling 8-2.
 
Elon's Nemec rallied to claim his first dual match victory at the number one position when he dropped Pereira 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. At number two, Helpingstine won for the third consecutive outing as he defeated Ziamtsou 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
 
After Turner and Sharma split sets at number three (Turner took the first set 6-4 before dropping the second set 0-6) the pair was locked in a tight contest in the deciding set when Turner had to retire.  Sharma held a 4-2 advantage in the third set at the time.
 
Rojas claimed Elon's third point when he upended Blank in straight sets, 6-0, 6-4 at number four.
 
Ybarra fought off Arboleda for a 6-4, 6-3 decision at number five while Alex Wetherell held off Elon's Cody Stauffer-MacDowell 7-6, 6-4 at number six.
 
Elon, who has faced three ranked opponents already this season, will make its home debut on Saturday, Feb. 13 when the Phoenix hosts the Ospreys of North Florida at noon from the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.

Troy 6, Georgia Southern 1

ORLANDO, Fla. - Improving his singles record to 3-1 on his freshman campaign, Juan Manuel Melian Puigventos took a decision at the No.2 singles spot as Georgia Southern fell to Troy, 6-1, Saturday afternoon (Feb. 6). Competing on neutral ground on the campus of Central Florida, Troy took the doubles point and five singles matches en route to maintaining a perfect record on the year, 3-0. The Eagles fell to 1-3 with the loss.

"We played a good team today that took advantage of opportunities given and Troy played a consistent match," said head coach Justin Miles. "Hopefully we can improve on this match and come out strong against Central Florida tomorrow."

The non-conference opponents tussled for the doubles point, drawing the decision to the wire on each court. Despite strong winds, Troy proved victorious at all three seeds to nab the early 1-0 lead, jumping out with an 8-3 triumph on court one. The Trojans took an 8-5 decision at the No. 3 seed, but squeezed out a win at the two seed in a tiebreak. Seniors Jayraj Jadeja (London, England) and Justin Flynn (Dublin, Ireland) drew their contest into a tiebreak over Xavier Masson and Branko Weber, falling 8-7 (4).

Mario Rolemberg extended Troy's lead to two with a straight set decision at the five seed in singles play and Guilherme Sahadi pushed the Trojans to the brink of victory with a decision at the sixth seed. Aurelien Tave secured the match with a 6-2, 6-3 victory from No. 3, before Troy added two from the top and fourth seeds, respectively. Melian Puigventos (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain) closed out the match for the Eagles notching his third dual match singles victory of the season, coming from the No. 2 seed. The freshman Eagle handled Weber in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, to seal a final 6-1 score.

Georgia Southern returns to the court and will look to rebound against Central Florida, Sunday, February 7. First serve is slated for 11 a.m.