Eagles cruise past Patriots on the road

WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. – The Carson-Newman men's tennis team ended a three-match losing streak on Thursday afternoon, with a 7-2 win against the University of the Cumberlands.

"We played well today," Carson-Newman tennis coach Jean Love said. "We started off strong in doubles and got the momentum. We rode that momentum to take five out of six in singles play."

The No. 2 doubles team of Joao Pedro Oliveria (Brazil) and Gabriel Dabdab (Brazil) won their second consecutive match over Dev Sivam and Sebastian Schille 8-5. The Brazilian tandem improve to 9-5 overall on the year and an 8-3 mark at the No. 2 doubles position.

For the second consecutive match the No. 3 doubles pairing was Jesus Bacete-Sanz (Spain) and Kevin Mendes (Chattanooga, Tenn.). The tandem picked up an 8-2 win, their first as a pairing this season. The No. 1 doubles team also looked a bit different with Stefano Daza (Venezuela) and Marc Bantel (Germany). The pairing lost their second consecutive match when paired together.

Carson-Newman (5-8, 3-5) took a 2-1 lead going into the singles portion of the competition against the Cumberlands (4-12). The Eagles never took their foot off the gas against the Patriots, winning all but one match.

Oliveria won his first set 6-3, but then had to battle back after dropping the second set 6-7. The senior outlasted his competition to pick up a 12-10 third set victory. Oliveria has now won three consecutive matches in a row and has compiled a 9-6 record on the season.

The Eagles No. 6 tennis player Mendes is also currently riding a three match winning streak. The junior from Chattanooga won in straight sets 6-0, 6-1 to improve his record to 9-2 on the season. This is the second time this season that Mendes has had a winning streak of at least three matches.

Another pair of Eagles Daza and Bacete-Sanz have won two consecutive matches. Bacete-Sanz picked up a three-set victory (5-7, 6-4, 11-9) at No. 3 singles, while Daza picked up a straight sets victory (6-4, 6-1) at No. 4 singles.  

Dabdab picked up the final victory of the afternoon with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Kenny Wilson at the No. 5 singles position. The freshman now has an 8-5 record on the season. The lone defeat in singles play came from Bantel at the No. 2 singles position. Bantel has lost five straight and is just 3-11 on the season.

The Eagles will be on the road again on April 1, against Brevard at 1 p.m. 

-CN-