March 23, 2012
Results
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -
The Samford University men's tennis team suffered its first loss in 49 days Friday as the Bulldogs were defeated on the road by the College of Charleston Cougars, 4-3, in a hotly-contested Southern Conference duel held at the Patriots Point Tennis Complex.
"Overall, that was a great match today," said Samford head coach Rahim Esmail. "Both teams competed really hard and a lot of credit goes to College of Charleston for pulling out the match."
With the loss, Samford (11-3, 5-1 SoCon) had its season-long, eight-match winning streak snapped. Prior to Friday's defeat, the Bulldogs' most recent loss was a 4-2 home setback against Southern Miss on Feb. 11.
Since then, Samford rattled off consecutive victories against Jacksonville State, Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State, Wofford, Appalachian State, Furman, Georgia Southern and The Citadel.
College of Charleston (8-3, 3-0 SoCon) earned its sixth win in seven outings Friday. The Cougars entered their match with Samford as one of the hottest teams in the conference and earned a third-straight SoCon victory. College of Charleston's lone loss in its last seven matches was a 6-1 non-conference setback at No. 48-ranked South Carolina.
In Friday's SoCon battle held at Patriots Point, Samford took an early 1-0 lead in the match by winning the doubles point.
The Bulldogs' tandem comprised of Zac Dunkle and Alexander Sajonz tallied an 8-6 triumph in the No. 1 doubles contest, while Fernando Costa and Carson Kadi notched an 8-5 victory over the Cougars' duo of Brice Allanic and Crescente Lesser on court No. 3.
With their win in the No. 3 doubles matchup, Samford's Costa and Kadi remained undefeated in SoCon play and improved to 11-3 on the season. They also notched their ninth-straight victory in dual-match play.
College of Charleston bounced back from its doubles loss by registering four wins in singles play to rally for the 4-3 team victory. After Samford's Elliot Barnwell defeated Kyle Parker on court No. 3, 6-2, 6-2, the Bulldogs held a 2-1 advantage in the match.
At that point, the Cougars reeled off consecutive singles wins on courts Nos. 4, 1 and 2 to take a decisive 4-2 lead. Samford's Sajonz closed out Friday's SoCon contest with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 triumph over Allanic on court No. 5.
With his victory, Sajonz extended his winning streak to four-consecutive matches and improved to 9-4 in singles play this season. The Bulldogs' Barnwell tallied his eighth-straight win Friday and improved his team-best record in dual-match play to 13-1.
"We got off to a good start in the doubles and carried that over to the singles, winning three first sets," Esmail said. "We lost some close matches, and we need to get a little tougher and better conditioned down the road in order to win those matches next time we are placed in that situation. It was a hard-fought match, and we are looking forward to getting back after it this week and getting ready for next weekend."
The Samford University men's tennis team will next be in action March 31 at 1 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs host the Davidson Wildcats in their final SoCon home contest of the 2012 campaign to be held at the Samford Tennis Center.
