March 11, 2012

Results

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University men's tennis team continued its winning ways Sunday as the Bulldogs registered a hard-fought 4-3 Southern Conference victory against the Appalachian State Mountaineers in a critical early-league contest held at the Samford Tennis Center.

"Today was an absolute battle," said Samford head coach Rahim Esmail. "The guys competed hard and dug deep. They gave it everything they had to win that match today. Appalachian State has a great team and made us earn everything that we got."

With Sunday's triumph, Samford (8-2, 2-0 SoCon) extended its winning streak to five-straight matches. The Bulldogs have not been defeated in over a month and have collected consecutive wins against Jacksonville State 4-2, Eastern Kentucky 5-2, Morehead State 7-0, Wofford 6-1 and Appalachian State (4-4, 0-1 SoCon).

Samford's last defeat occurred Feb. 11 at home versus Southern Miss, 4-2.

The Mountaineers began play in a seven-match road trip Sunday and suffered their first loss since a 6-1 setback at East Tennessee State on Feb. 25. On Feb. 26, Appalachian State bounced back with a dominant 6-1 home victory against Belmont.

In Sunday's SoCon showdown, the Bulldogs were able to rally for the all-important doubles point. Samford's pairing of Fernando Costa and Carson Kadi quickly posted an 8-0 victory in the No. 3 contest before the Bulldogs' duo comprised of Elliot Barnwell and Ryan Shidler battled for a crucial 9-8(7) triumph on court No. 2 over Appalachian State's Alain Humblet and Alex Markov.

"The doubles point was key," Esmail said. "We found a way to hang in there, and were able to get a break late, and get ourselves back in the match at No. 2. In singles, we did a great job at the top of our lineup today. Zac (Dunkle) never gave up, and pulled out a huge victory for us, after being down."

After earning the early 1-0 lead Sunday, Samford added straight-set singles wins from Kadi on court No. 1, 6-4, 6-4, and Barnwell on court No. 3, 6-4, 6-2, to total three team points. With Barnwell's victory, he improved his team-best singles record this season to 9-1, while Kadi improved to 4-1 on court No. 2.

Appalachian State tied the overall score of the match at 3-3 by sweeping the bottom half of the singles competition. The Mountaineers' Sebastien King was victorious on court No. 4, while Steven Karendal won on court No. 5 and Matt Saltsgaver tallied a three-set victory in the No. 6 singles contest.

With the overall score of the match tied at 3-3, all attention shifted to court No. 1 where Samford's Zac Dunkle was tangling with Appalachian State's Markov in the decisive contest of the day.

Dunkle, the Bulldogs' talented junior from Atlanta, Ga., dropped the first set 6-4, but then bounced back to secure victories in the next two frames 7-5, 6-3. With the victory, Dunkle improved to 8-2 on the season and Samford secured the thrilling 4-3 triumph.

The Samford University men's tennis team will next be in action Friday at 2 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs continue their four-match, SoCon-opening homestand against the Furman Paladins in a key league contest to be held at the Samford Tennis Center.