April 16, 2011

Results

GREENVILLE, S.C. - The Samford University men's tennis team closed out its regular-season schedule with a crucial road victory Saturday against the Furman Paladins as the Bulldogs used stellar play in the singles competition to earn a 4-3 Southern Conference victory at the Mickel Tennis Center.

With the win, Samford (16-6, 6-4 SoCon) clinched the No. 5 seed in next week's SoCon Tournament and earned a first-round bye in the all-important 11-team competition to be held at The Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tenn. The top-five teams in the final conference standings received first-round byes.

Furman (7-18, 5-5 SoCon) also entered Saturday's contest with an identical 5-4 conference record. With a home victory against Samford, the Paladins would have secured the SoCon's fifth seed and a first-round bye. Instead, Furman will enter the tournament as the sixth-seeded team.

In Saturday's key conference showdown, the Paladins opened the contest by sweeping the doubles matches. Furman's Sawyer Duncan and Andrew Mellow combined for an 8-4 win over Samford's Oliver Reynolds and Carl Abalos in the top doubles match.

The Paladins' Joel Cook and Alex Christ then teamed up for an 8-2 victory over Zac Dunkle and Alexander Sajonz at No. 2 doubles, while senior Andrei Chvetsov and freshman Marco Aru defeated the Bulldogs' Carson Kadi and Fernando Costa 8-5 in the third doubles match.

For the second straight match, Samford regrouped as a team in singles play and received clutch victories from Dunkle, Abalos, Costa and Sajonz to earn the thrilling 4-3 overall victory. Against Wofford on Friday, the Bulldogs opened their SoCon road trip with a similar 4-3 come-from-behind win against the Terriers.

Against Furman, Sajonz defeated Cook 6-2, 6-2 at No. 6 singles, then Costa topped the Paladins' Tyler Droll 6-3, 6-3, on court No. 5 to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead. The Paladins' Christ then evened the score at 2-2 after notching a 6-2, 6-4 win over Reynolds on court No. 4, before Samford recorded two more victories to clinch the team triumph.

Abalos defeated Chvetsov 6-4, 6-3, at No. 3 singles before Dunkle posted a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Mellow in the second singles matchup. Furman's Duncan tightened the final score match at 4-3 with an inconsequential 7-6(5), 4-6, 10-5 win over Kadi in the top singles contest.

Samford's Costa and Abalos both extended their winning streaks to three-consecutive matches Saturday and improved their singles records to 15-6 and 16-5, respectively. Sajonz, the Bulldogs' talented sophomore transfer from Auburn University, tallied his second straight singles victory and moved his record to 15-5 this season.

With Dunkle's singles win, he improved his record to 13-8 at the highly competitive No. 2 position this year.

The Samford University men's tennis team will next be in action Thursday at noon (CDT) as the fifth-seeded Bulldogs begin play in the 2011 SoCon Tournament with a quarterfinal round matchup against the fourth-seeded Appalachian State Mountaineers. On Sunday, Samford and Appalachian State squared off in Boone, N.C., and the Bulldogs dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 decision on the road.