Young Eagles start strong in season debut at Wingate Invitational
The Carson-Newman men’s tennis team saw freshmen Marc Janse and Ids Waterbolk secure impressive wins in singles and doubles play in their collegiate debuts at the Wingate Invitational.
VIDEO: Jim Frederick Recaps Wingate Invitational
Wingate, N.C.- The Carson-Newman men's tennis team saw freshmen Marc Janse and Ids Waterbolk secure impressive wins in singles and doubles play in their collegiate debuts at the Wingate Invitational.
Janse (Zeewolde, Netherlands) started things off by defeating Catawba's Joe Honorio 6-4, 6-4 before losing to Matteo Gostoli of Wingate 6-2, 6-0. In a peculiar turn of events, Janse took on fellow Eagle Gabriel Dabdab and beat him 6-2, 6-3.
"One of the most interesting things if not the most interesting thing this weekend is Marc ended up playing Gabriel Dabdab in the third [versus] fourth playoff and beat him pretty good," tennis head coach Jim Frederick said. "I don't think Dabdab's too happy but that's okay, I don't think he expected to lose to a freshman."
It wasn't all bad for Dabdab who triumphed over Will Roberts, a crusader of Belmont Abbey College before losing to Lenoir-Rhyne's Josh Lazenby in a third-set tiebreaker 7-5, 2-6, 10-5.
"For the most part, we didn't play our third-set tiebreakers well," Frederick said.
Waterbolk lost to Sean Cliff, also of Belmont Abbey College 6-4, 6-3 but recovered with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Patrick Arapi, also a Wingate Bulldog. The Bennekom, Netherlands native then finished strong with a conquest against Jo Roe, another Crusader, 6-1, 6-7, 10-4.
Janse and Waterbolk then teamed up in doubles where they went 2-1. The duo dominated their first two matches, beating Cliff and teammate Dean Zoglio 6-2 and Lenoir-Rhyne's Mauricio Hernandez and Alex Hyman 6-1. The young Eagles were then dropped in the final by Josep Canyadell and Gabriel Liahovici of Wingate 6-0.
Sophomore Rintaro Oka (Japan) lost his first match to Gabriel Martin of Belmont Abbey College 6-2, 7-5 before defeating Martin's teammate, Francisco Aran 6-3, 6-3.
Oka and Dabdab joined up in doubles play but lost both matches.
"We can get better at doubles," Frederick said. "Marc and Ids won two doubles matches, that was good but they got hammered in the last match and I think that they were a little over confident and realized what level they have to play up to to be a nationally ranked team which I think they can be."
Ids and Waterbolk weren't the only freshmen making their Carson-Newman debuts as Joshua Ott (Knoxville, TN) saw one win and one loss on the day.
Junior Daniel Cox was the only winless Eagle for the event after losing to Alex Crabtree, yet another Crusader. The opponent for his second match withdrew before play began.
The Carson-Newman men's tennis team is back in action on Friday, Sept. 27 at 9 a.m. at the ITA Regionals in Sumpter, S.C. You can keep up with all of the action on C-N's social media platforms.
