Dogfight match opens season for C-N Men’s Tennis in exhibition match
The Eagles dropped an exhibition contest to the Sewanee Tigers 3-4 with six of the matches taking tiebreaks to solve. The #22 team in Division III fought with C-N in tightly contested games to narrowly take the match.
Sewanee, Tenn. – The Eagles dropped an exhibition contest to the Sewanee Tigers 3-4 with six of the matches taking tiebreaks to solve. The #22 team in Division III fought with C-N in tightly contested games to narrowly take the match.
Louis Keenan and Max Stollecker opened the first doubles match strong, jumping out to an early 3-2 lead over the Tigers. The pair would go set for set with Sewanee's Andrew-Remi Jakobi and Sam Schroerlucke, all the way to a seventh-game tie break. Eventually, Sewanee got their first win of the day with a 7-3 tiebreak win.
It was a hard-fought battle at the second doubles spot. Ultimately, Yassin Ali and Eagle's captain Leo Baecker fought off a Tigers comeback that took the match to a tiebreak. In the tiebreak point, Baecker and Ali stumbled to drop the match 77-61.
The threes pair of Wade Donovan and Giancarlo Rosario dropped their doubles match 6-3. Midway through the match, the pair was down just 3-2 to the Tiger's Max Verellen and Lucas Wrigley, but would ultimately fall.
Stollecker's day ended on a positive note, though. Having to compete in singles with one half of the pair he played in doubles, the sophomore enacted his revenge. Schroerlucke took the first set 6-1 before Stollecker rallied in a competitive set two for a 7-5 win. Set three ended in emphatic fashion. After Stollecker worked the score of the final game to 45-0, Sewanee's competitor battled for the deuce. With the serve, the Creighton transfer hit a rocket of a forehand to put the match away. This would put the Eagles tied with the Tigers 1-1.
The entertainment continued at the second singles. Baecker faced off with Sewanee's Henry Hyden, who caught the sophomore off balance at first. Baecker dropped set one 6-2, but turned the tables in set two. The score was tied 1-1 after Baecker's 6-1 victory in the second. Then things got interesting. In the tiebreaker, Baecker and Hyden were knotted at six apiece in an absolute dogfight. Ultimately, Hyden put the match away to put the Eagles down 1-2.
Keenan was consistent on court one for the Eagles. Taking on Andre-Remi Jakobi, Keenan fought back from a 2-0 game deficit in set one, winning three straight games at the tail end of the set to take the first 6-4. From there, the sophomore kept the heat dialed up. His match was the third of the day to move into a tiebreaker scenario. However, the experienced sophomore would stay the course, winning the match 6-4, 77-64. This tied the team score up again 2-2.
Donovan struggled early at 5th singles, dropping his first set 6-1. The freshman fought back, though, and kept things tight midway through, down just 3-2. After tying the score at 3, Dovovan lost three straight games to fall 6-1, 6-3. C-N was down 2-3 at this point.
Rosario rounded out the scoring at six singles. The freshman played tug-of-war with Charlie Schweppe in set one, but dropped the frame 6-4. Rosario turned things around in the second frame, going toe to toe with Schweppe to tie the set at 3. With most of the team watching from courts one and three, Schweppe and Rosario were tied at 5. Rosario fell to 5-6 with the serve, but in a miraculous scramble, Rosario made it 6-6. Schweppe jumped out to a 5-0 lead before the pair switched sides. The freshman battled to take three points, but dropped the tiebreak 7-3. That would seal the match for the Tigers in a 2-4 score.
Ali was wrapping up his match about the same time Rosario finished. The freshman got off to a hot start, jumping out a 3-0 lead in set one over Verellen. The Tiger was relentless though, battling back and pushing the score to just a 6-5 lead for Ali. Verellen eventually took set one 76-62. Verellen continued to challenge the Egyptian native, using tough serving to take a 3-1 lead in the second set. Ali fought back to a 6-5 score, scrapping to win set two 77-66. This would force the tiebreak where he would dominate in a 10-4 win.
Both Stollecker and Ali collected their first wins as Eagles in the 3-4 loss to the Tigers. This shifts the all-time series record in favor of the Tigers, with just a 2-1 lead.
This being an exhibition match, C-N looks to the weekend where they will take on Cumberland (Ky.) on February 7th in Harrogate.
