ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. - The Methodist men's tennis team avenged a regular season 4-3 loss to No. 71 Pfeiffer University with a 4-3 upset over the No. 2 seeded Falcons on Friday afternoon, advancing to the USA South Conference Championship.
"This was an unbelievable match," stated Head Coach
Scott Handback. "Pfeiffer competed until the last ball was struck and never gave up. We felt we had something to prove today and our guys were determined to leave it all out on the court. I could not be prouder of such an amazing group of young men."
JUST THE FACTS
Final Scores: Methodist def. Pfeiffer 4-3
Records: Methodist 13-6; Pfeiffer 15-4
Location: Slick Family Foundation Tennis Center, Rocky Mount, North Carolina
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Monarchs lost the first doubles match as Billy Johnson and Andrew Waddill fell 6-1 at No. 3 doubles. The Monarchs captured the doubles point with Matthew Hurley and Decklan Rayner winning at No. 1 doubles, Harry Crokam and Aaron Zoubek winning at No. 2 doubles.
- Methodist moved out to a 2-0 lead with Hurley's straight set win at No. 1 singles. Pfeiffer closed the gap with a loss by Johnson at No. 5 singles and Rayner at No. 4 singles. Crokam then put the Monarchs on the verge of victory with a straight set win at No. 2 singles, but the Falcons closed the gap again to tie the match at 3-3 with a loss by Waddill at No. 6 singles. The deciding match was a rematch of Zoubek and Pfeiffer's Jayden Wellman who won the three-set decision during the regular season. After capturing the first set and going up 5-2 in the second, Zoubek dropped four straight games to fall behind 5-6. Determined not to go three sets again, Zoubek took the second set to a tiebreaker and finished off the clinching match for Methodist with a 7-1 score in the tiebreaker.
UP NEXT
The Monarchs play No. 1 seed North Carolina Wesleyan University on Saturday, April 25, at 11 AM for the USA South Conference Championship.
