ELON, N.C. – The Elon men’s tennis team suffered its first home Southern Conference loss in 15 matches, dropping a 5-2 decision to Appalachian State on Wednesday afternoon at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. The Mountaineers (9-5, 3-1) won the doubles point and then earned victories in the first three singles matches off the courts en route to the league win. The Phoenix dropped to 7-9 overall and 4-2 in the SoCon.
Three competitive doubles matches entertained the crowd to begin the match. Elon freshmen Dan Sablik and Christopher Geaslen picked up an early break on court three before ASU’s Steve Karendal and Andrew McKinnon won five of the next six games en route to an 8-5 win. The Phoenix evened things up at the top doubles position where Cameron Silverman and Eric Turner opened with a 4-1 advantage and finished off the 8-3 decision against Philip Kloc and Sebastien King.
The teams on court two remained locked on serve until Appalachian State’s Alex Markov and Alain Humblet reeled off four straight games to close out the 8-5 doubles-point clinching win over rookies Stefan Fortmann and Jordan Kaufman.
The Mountaineers made quick work of matches at number five and six, dropping only five total games in the two matches to take a commanding 3-0 lead. Humblet provided the match-clinching 6-4, 6-0 victory against Turner on court three to secure the ASU victory. The Mountaineers snapped a seven-match losing streak to the Phoenix.
Kaufman picked up the first Elon point at number five, taking a 6-2, 6-3 decision against King at number four to improve to 5-1 in league action.
On court two, Fortmann dropped his first SoCon match of the year in a tight contest against Kloc. ASU pulled off the 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory for the team’s fifth point of the match.
Silverman remained unbeaten in conference action, battling back from a 4-1 deficit in the first set to take the 7-5, 7-6 (5) win against Markov. The sophomore is 12-5 in dual action this season.
Elon has a big conference weekend coming up with a road trip to Furman and Wofford. The Phoenix will begin against Furman on Saturday, March 31 at 1 p.m.