RALEIGH, N.C. – Finishing out the opening tournament of the 2014 spring season, the Elon University men’s tennis team took on 35th-ranked NC State in singles Sunday, Jan. 12, at the J.W. Isenhour Tennis Center. The Phoenix struggled through tough matches, but ultimately went 0-10 on the day.
“Overall, it was a good weekend,” said Elon head coach Michael Leonard. “We lost a lot of tight matches today against a really good NC State team, but there were a lot of competitive matches. We lost a couple three-set matches and tiebreakers but we can build on that in the upcoming season.”
Cameron Silverman, ranked No. 25 in the nation, took No. 50 Austin Powell the distance on court No. 1, but fell 6-2, 5-6, 6-4. Stefan Fortmann also went three sets on court No. 2, but fell to Sean Weber 6-5, 5-6, 6-2.
The only other match to go all three sets was on court No. 4 where Robert Lindgren battled Nick Horton, the No. 83 player in the country. Horton held Lindgren off in the third set to pick up the 6-4, 5-6, 6-4 win.
The Wolfpack Invite, hosted by NC State, included players from Elon and William & Mary. Elon completed singles competition against the Tribe Friday and doubles competition Saturday before taking on NC State in doubles Saturday and singles Sunday.
The tournament was the first live action in which Elon used the new Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) scoring system, which includes the elimination of ad points, creating more high-pressure points.
“The best thing about the weekend was we got to play a lot of tennis against good, quality opponents and we got to test out the new tennis scoring format,” Leonard said. “It was good for our team to get in that environment and see it because you can talk about it as much as you want but until you see it, you can’t really grasp it.”
Elon returns to action Friday, Jan. 17, when it travels to Durham, N.C. for its first dual match of the season to take on the seventh-ranked Duke Blue Devils at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center. The Phoenix opened the 2013 spring season against then-No. 5 Duke and fell 9-0 to the Blue Devils.
Results
No. 50 Austin Powell (NCSU) def. No. 25 Cameron Silverman (Elon), 6-2, 5-6, 6-4
Sean Weber (NCSU) def. Stefan Fortmann (Elon), 6-5, 5-6, 6-2
Simon Norenius (NCSU) def. Brian Kowalski (Elon), 6-0, 6-4
No. 76 Robbie Mudge (NCSU) def. Jordan Kaufman (Elon), 6-3, 6-2
No. 83 Nick Horton (NCSU) def. Robert Lindgren (Elon), 6-4, 5-6, 6-4
No. 82 Thomas Weigel (NCSU) def. Juan Madrid (Elon), 6-4, 6-4
Beck Bond (NCSU) def. Dan Sablik (Elon), 6-1, 6-3
Ian Dempster (NCSU) def. Ismael Sanchez Delfin (Elon), 6-2, 6-4
Ryan Newman (NCSU) def. Christopher Geaslen (Elon), 6-2, 6-1
Parker McGuiness (NCSU) def. Chris Humphreys (Elon), 6-3, 6-2