Most dominant win of the season for the Eagles puts men’s tennis on a two-match win streak
The men were just one win away from sweeping the Chargers, but nonetheless grabbed a 6-1 win en route to their second in a row.
VIDEO: Nate Gangelhoff Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The men were just one win away from sweeping the Chargers, but nonetheless grabbed a 6-1 win en route to their second in a row.
This marks the second win this week for the Eagles. After not winning a match since the 14th of February, C-N has not taken care of Wise and Hillsdale to improve to 3-7 on the season (1-2 in SAC play). Carson-Newman had been stuck on a five-match skid in the latter part of February.
"It's good to be able to stack those wins after those matches had happened, but I did it on purpose because those were really good teams, they were really good players," said head coach Nate Gangelhoff. "I wanted to see if we could rise to the challenge in some moments and have it be the result of just playing good quality tennis and have that bleed into the rest of the season."
This was the second match in a row that C-N Men's Tennis has had to overcome windy conditions at its home court, and the second time the Eagles have come out victorious.
"You can't hit shots that you normally hit when the elements just are against you. So, I tell my guys, play the winds. Don't let the wind play you," said Gangelhoff.
It began with a strong doubles performance once again from the first and second doubles pairs. Louis Keenan and Max Stollecker didn't leave much room for error at first doubles, grabbing a 6-1 victory at the first pairing. This was their 5th win of the season at the ones pair. Yassin Ali and Leonard Baecker also helped the Eagles with a 6-3 win at second doubles to secure the point for C-N. Baecker and Ali are 2-2 as a doubles pair. Wade Donovan and Giancarlo Rosario just fell short at third doubles with a 7-5 loss.
"Max and I, and the more we play, the more we find our rhythm. So yeah, it's great. It's great playing with Max every day. And then we get more and more used to each other," said Keenan.
In the singles category, the Eagles nearly pulled off the sweep, with each of the matches winning except at the fifth line. At first singles, Keenan collected his third singles win of the year with scores of 6-3, 6-1.
"He had an emotional win against Wise to be able to clinch that for us. But for him to turn right back and still keep that same focus with the conditions at one is super strong," said Gangelhoff.
Max Stollecker's match was one of three singles matches that went to a third set. Stollecker was on top early with a 6-4 set one win but fell 6-0 in set two. The sophomore didn't take kindly to being shut out, though, and won set three in straight games. Stollecker has the best singles record on the team at 5-2.
Leonard Baecker's match also went to three sets, but Baecker had to work himself out of a deficit. The first set went to Hillsdale 6-3, but the captain made a major adjustment to win his last two sets 6-0, 6-1. Baecker is now 3-2 in singles action with a 1-1 record in the third slot.
Yassin Ali also grabbed his first singles victory. It was a tug-of-war in set one, but Ali pulled through with the 6-4 win. He fell starkly in set two 6-0, but came through in the tiebreaker third set with a 10-8 victory.
Wade Donovan has been long awaiting a singles win, and he got it in two sets, taking a 6-2, 6-4 win at sixth singles. This is his first singles win in 10 matches, and his first singles victory in an Eagles uniform.
"Extremely proud of Wade. Getting his first collegiate win was a big get the monkey off his back sort of mentality and he has had that coming for a long time. He battled conditions just like everybody else. He stayed the course. He stayed confident, didn't get too upset in those critical times. So, super deserving of him to get that first collegiate win," said Gangelhoff.
Although Hillsdale was an out-of-region opponent, Carson-Newman will need to do all it can from here on out to have a shot at the SAC tournament and NCAA regional. C-N is currently tied for 7th with Mars Hill and Coker in the conference standings.
"We're not settling for where we're at. We're happy with where we're at in comparison where we have been, but we are not settling for good enough because it's not. We still have work to do. We still have things to accomplish that will require the hard work," said Gangelhoff.
With this win, C-N will look to Monday, when they travel to Rome, GA, to battle another out-of-region opponent, the University of Nebraska-Kearney. For updates, follow @CN_Eagles on X and Instagram, or check cneagles.com for full coverage.
