Phoenix Men¹s Tennis Takes 6-1 Road Victory at Georgia Southern

STATESBORO, Ga. – The Elon men’s tennis team got back on the winning track with a dominating performance at Georgia Southern, winning its eighth straight against the Eagles with a 6-1 victory in heated temperatures on Monday afternoon. The Phoenix rolled through the doubles matches and won five of the six singles bouts to improve to 7-8 overall and 4-1 in Southern Conference competition. Georgia Southern dropped to 1-15 on the year, 0-5 in the league.

“This is the best doubles we played as a team in a long time, especially at two and three,” commented Elon head coach Michael Leonard. “I felt the guys came out of the gate and played hard until the final point. Our doubles play really set the tone for the match.”

Elon’s number two doubles tandem of freshmen Stefan Fortmann and Jordan Kaufman got off the courts quickly with an 8-2 victory against Marco Osorio and Daniel Rush. The pair is now 3-2 against SoCon opponents. The Phoenix clinched the early lead when Cameron Silverman and Eric Turner won their fourth conference match with an 8-6 tally against Alain Garrido and Andrew Dromsky at number one. Elon’s Dan Sablik and Chris Geaslen completed the sweep with an 8-2 defeat of Sebastien Felt and Kyle Hoffman.

Fortmann was impressive in singles, giving Elon the 2-0 lead with his 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Hoffman on court two. The rookie took the first set in only 16 minutes. Silverman came off next, topping Garrido, 6-3, 6-2, at number one. Both Silverman and Fortmann are unbeaten in conference play. Kaufman provided the match-clinching win for the Phoenix yet again, earning a 7-6 (3), 6-3 victory over Rush.

“With this young of a team, I thought the focus today from start to finish was as close to a veteran team as you can get,” noted Elon assistant coach Bob Owens. “That is a very tough task for a youthful team especially with some of the injuries we are currently battling through.”

After battling out a 7-6 first set against Dromsky, Turner cruised to the 7-6 (3), 6-0 win at number three to make it 5-0 Phoenix. Carlos Arboleda provided the final point for the Phoenix with his 6-2, 6-3 defeat of Osorio at number five. The final match need a super tiebreaker to decide the winner as Felt earned the Eagles lone point with a 6-7 (4), 6-2, 1-0 (5) win against Geaslen on court six.

Elon will complete its Spring Break trip at North Florida on Wednesday, March 21 at 1 p.m.