Better play from men’s tennis falls shy in 2-5 loss to Young Harris
Carson-Newman Men’s Tennis dropped a 2-5 decision to Young Harris on Sunday morning at the LMU Tennis Facility, moving to 1-3 on the young season.
HARROGATE, Tenn. - Carson-Newman Men's Tennis dropped a 2-5 decision to Young Harris on Sunday morning at the LMU Tennis Facility, moving to 1-3 on the young season.
Despite the loss, head coach Nate Gangelhof was encouraged by the fight he saw out of his young team.
"Its the best quality of tennis I've seen so far from out guys this spring, but I know we have more in us from what I've seen in the fall," said Gangelhoff.
The Eagles started the day fighting for the doubles point, but couldn't secure the early advantage. The top pairing of Louis Keenan and Max Stollecker continued their strong form, grinding out a 7-5 victory at first doubles over Guillem Busquets and Greyson Williams. However, the Mountain Lions responded by taking the matches at the second and third positions to snatch the 1-0 lead heading into singles play.
"We are just missing a few key points in doubles and critical moments in singles. We do that, and the match would have been very different," Gangelhoff said.
In singles, Leonard Baecker provided a spark for C-N at the No. 2 spot. The sophomore wasted little time, dispatching Greyson Williams in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, to put a point on the board for the Eagles.
Max Stollecker also delivered a dominant performance at third singles. The transfer picked up his second singles win of the weekend with a commanding 6-2, 6-3 victory over Mason Harmon.
Despite the wins from Baecker and Stollecker, the Eagles couldn't find the third point to swing the momentum. Louis Keenan battled in his match at first singles but fell in a heartbreaker. After dropping a tight first set in a tiebreak 6-7 (7-9), Keenan rallied to take the second 6-4 but ultimately dropped the deciding set 4-6.
Darko Kolevski and Wade Donovan also battled. Each of their matches would take tiebreakers to solve in the final frame, but they ultimately fell in straight sets at the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.
"I give a ton of credit to Young Harris; they are a very good team, and they made us raise our level," Gangelhoff said.
Carson-Newman will look to bounce back and grab their second win of the season next weekend. The Eagles return to action on Saturday, Feb. 21, when they host Middle Georgia. First serve is set for 2:00 PM.
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