FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. Methodist put together a pair of dominant USA South Athletic Conference men's tennis victories Saturday afternoon at the Gene Clayton Tennis Center, bouncing back from a narrow defeat to visiting Southern Virginia University in a morning non-conference match-up.
THE ESSENTIALS
Final scores: So. Virginia def. Methodist, 6-3; Methodist def. Greensboro, 9-0; Methodist def. Greensboro, 9-0
Records: Methodist 6-10 (2-1 USA South), So. Virginia 8-1, Greensboro 0-6 (0-6)
Location: Gene Clayton Tennis Center; Fayetteville, N.C.
Rankings: Atlantic South Region (ITA) – No. 15 Methodist, No. 16 So. Virginia
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The match with Southern Virginia easily could have gone the other way, beginning with close play during the doubles matches. The Knights picked up an 8-7 win at No. 1 and an 8-6 victory at No. 2. The Monarchs prevented the sweep with a solid 8-2 win at No. 3 by Hayden Wilfong and Kayhanh Alikhani, but the narrow losses at the other two spots would be haunting.
- Similarly, in singles play two matches went into third-set super-tiebreakers, each won by Southern Virginia, and a third match turned the Knights' way in an opening-set tiebreak victory.
- Jacob Oehser and Henry Murray at Nos. 5 and 6, respectively, soundly defeated their singles opponents. Murray rolled to a 6-0, 6-0 win while Oehser won nearly as quickly, at 0 and 2.
- The Monarchs rolled through each of their matches against Greensboro, putting six different doubles tandems and 12 different singles players on the courts across the two events.
- Joshua Deutsch and Alex Lycan at No. 1 and KJ Hardie and Daniel Wolf at 2-doubles picked up 8-0 wins in the early Greensboro match, while Murray paired with Spencer Kieft for an 8-1 win at No. 3 to complete the sweep.
- In the late match, the Monarchs again rolled out to a 3-0 lead after doubles play, getting 8-1 wins from Trent Harner and Coleman Baker at No. 1 and from Murray and Luke Laney at No. 2. An 8-0 shutout by Samir Tewari and Deutsch finished off the sweep.
- Methodist was as dominant in singles against the Pride, surrendering a total of eight games during the first match, and just three games across the second match's six bouts.
UP NEXT
Methodist hosts Averett University in a conference match Sunday at 2 p.m. on the Clayton Center courts.