College of Charleston 7, Limestone 0

GAFFNEY, S.C. - College of Charleston men's tennis cruised to a 7-0 sweep of Limestone College on Sunday afternoon in the Cougars' first dual match of the 2010 season.

Sophomore duo Chris Toussaint and John Harden earned the first victory for Charleston, defeating Limestone's Mike Stephenson and Paulo Avila, 8-1, at the No. 3 spot. Top-seeded Lukas Koncilia and Tom Delme won their match match over Saints' Christian Warnholtz and Jordan Vicain, 8-2, to secure the doubles point for the Cougars.

Steven Myers and Joe Nicolazzi completed the doubles sweep, edging out Miguel Lopez Zuniga and Henrick Nordquist, 8-6.

College of Charleston continued to assert its dominance in singles competition where four Cougars defeated their opponents in straight sets. Harden's 6-1, 6-3 victory over Avila at the No. 5 spot clinched the match win for Charleston. Freshman Billy Kenny earned his first win as a Cougar, defeating Sumate 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 6 spot.

After dropping the first set 6-4 to Warnholtz at the No. 2 spot, Trintignac rebounded to win the next two sets 6-2, 6-4. The afternoon ended with Koncilia besting Zuniga 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 as the top seed, completing the sweep for the Cougars.

Charleston hosts its first match of the season on Feb. 12 when Gardner-Webb travels to Patriots Point for a 2 p.m. non-conference match.

UNC Greensboro 7, Winston-Salem State 0

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Jacob Wright and William John both cruised to easy straight-set victories to lead UNC Greensboro to a 7-0 win over Winston-Salem State in men's tennis action Sunday afternoon.

Wright blanked Ian Hunter at No. 2 singles, 6-0 and 6-0, while John pitched a shutout of his own at No. 4 singles over Troy Miller, 6-0 and 6-0.

Yaroslav Litus, Timion Meijs, Kyle Eddins and A.J. Clark also picked up straight-set wins as UNCG raised its record to 2-0 on the spring season.

The Spartans return to action Friday when they visit Maryland at 3 p.m.

Florida State 5, Furman 2

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The Paladins won the doubles point but could only hold on for one singles win as 18th-ranked Florida State defeated the 59th-ranked Furman men's tennis team, 5-2, Sunday afternoon in Tallahassee, Fla.  

Furman started off strong, with junior Sawyer Duncan and freshman Andrew Mellow posting an 8-6 win over Jean-Yves Aubone and Chris Reiman at number two doubles, and senior Jordan Walters and junior Andrei Chvetsov combining for an 8-2 victory over Anderson Reed and Jordan Kelly-Houston in the third doubles spot.  At number one doubles #31 Vahid Mirzadeh and Connor Smith of Florida State handed seniors Chris Motes and Chris Rhyne an 8-2 loss.

In singles action, Paladin freshman Carl Lundberg won his match at number four singles, defeating Smith 6-3, 6-2.    Mirzadeh, ranked #111, defeated Duncan 6-3, 6-4 in the first singles position, while #27 Aubone handed Motes a 6-2, 6-3 loss at number two singles.  Chris Bowles, ranked #23, defeated #64 Walters 6-2, 6-2 in the third doubles spot.  Kelly-Houson beat Chvetsov 6-3, 6-2 at five singles, and Reed defeated Mellow 6-1, 6-3 at six singles.

The Paladins (0-3) will open the 2010 home season with a double-header Friday when Furman faces UNC Asheville at 3 p.m. and Washington & Lee at 7:30 p.m.

Central Florida 6, Georgia Southern 1

ORLANDO, Fla. - Freshman Juan Manuel Melian Puigventos captured his third consecutive singles win, but could not lead Georgia Southern past Central Florida Sunday afternoon (Feb. 7). The Eagles suffered a tough 6-1 decision at the UCF Tennis Complex.

Georgia Southern fell to 1-4 on the year, while Central Florida captured its first dual win of the 2010 season, improving to 1-1. The Knights opened competition sweeping the doubles point and nabbed five of six singles contests for the win.

"We faced another tough team this afternoon," said head coach Justin Miles. "Hopefully we will keep our heads up and fight harder against our matches coming up."

UCF opened doubles play grabbing the first two matches off the courts dropping only two games in the process. The 21^st-ranked doubles tandem of Marc Rocafort and Blaze Schwartz rounded out the doubles sweep with an 8-3 victory from the top seed as the Knights headed into singles play with a 1-0 advantage.

Singles wins at the No. 1 and 3 seeds, respectively, put the Knights ahead of the Eagles, 3-0. Rocafort edged Jayraj Jadeja at the top singles position, 6-0, 6-3, before Brock Sakey defeated senior Gregory Bekkers, 6-2, 6-1, from the three seed. Johan Beigart clinched the match for UCF capturing a straight set win at No. 4. The senior uprooted Alain Garrido, 6-4, 6-2, to seal the win.

The Knights took wins from the bottom two seeds before freshman Melian Puigventos (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain) recorded Georgia Southern's lone victory of the day. The Eagle challenged Nino Hasandedic at the two seed, notching a straight set victory. Melian Puigventos took the first set in a tiebreak, 7-6 (2), before cruising to a 6-3 second set victory for the win.

"We played a tough match today, but we will regroup and learn from today to prepare for tomorrow at Bethune-Cookman," stated Miles. "It should be another good match and we expect to have some good results tomorrow."

Georgia Southern closes out this three-match road swing on Monday, Feb. 8 at Bethune-Cookman. First serve is slated for 1:00 p.m.

East Carolina 5, Appalachian State 2

BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University men's tennis was unable to keep pace with East Carolina Sunday afternoon at the Yonahlossee Racquet Club, as the Apps fell 5-2 to the Pirates. With loss, the Mountaineers drop to 0-1 on the season, while ECU improves to 4-1 overall.

In a hard-fought match, ASU was unable to eek out the crucial doubles point, as the Pirates were victorious in two very close doubles matches.

The duo of Trent Constance and Peter Jacobs came up just short against Henrik Skalmerud and Stian Tvedt falling 9-8 at the number one doubles spot. However, Alain Humblet and Philip Kloc were able to pick up a win for the Black and Gold, downing their competitors, 8-3 at the number two spot.

Unfortunately, freshman Andrew McKinnonn and Britton Webb could not grab a win at the number three doubles position, falling 8-5, giving ECU the doubles point.

In singles action, Constance was defeated 7-5, 6-3 at the number one spot, while Jacobs was able to capture a win at the number two position, defeating Sklamerud 6-3, 6-3.

Kloc, Humblet and McKinnon also suffered losses at the three, four and five spots, while freshman Ezekiel Sansing was impressive, grabbing a narrow win over Bryan Oakley at the number six spot. McKinnon won 4-6, 6-2, 10-8.

Looking to rebound, the Apps continue with the 2009-10 season, heading to Lynchburg, Va. to take on Liberty, Saturday February 13 at 6 p.m.