ORLANDO/ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. – The Calvin University men's tennis team split a pair of tough matches on its final day of action in Florida on Friday.
Calvin (2-5) won the morning match 4-3 against Connecticut College (2-6) before dropping its match to Carthage College (12-2) 5-1 on Friday evening.
Match 1
Calvin overcame an early deficit by winning four of six singles matches to defeat Connecticut College 4-3 in the morning match at USTA National Campus.
The Knights fell behind 1-0 early as Connecticut College won the doubles point with wins in one-doubles (6-3) and three-doubles (6-4). The two doubles team of
Felipe Sartori (Estr. Basiléia/Colégio Giusto Zonzini) and
Diego Castellanos (Tarija, Bolivia/La Salle Tarija) won their match 7-6 (9-7).
Needing to win four of the six singles matches, the Knights got wins out of each of the top four spots in the line-up to earn the comeback win.
Caleb Bartels (Loch Lloyd, Mo./Kansas City Christian) won two-singles 6-0 and 6-1, and Sartori (7-6 (7-5) and 6-1) and Castellanos (6-3, 6-3) also won to give Calvin three points. The final point came in one-singles, where
Rodrigo Alipio (Santos, São Paulo, Brazil/COC Universitario) fought off a tough opponent to win 7-5 and 7-6 (7-5) in a second-set tiebreaker to secure the final point.
Match 2
In the evening match, the Knights fought hard against a tough 12-2 Carthage team but came out on the wrong end of three third-set tiebreakers in singles play in a 5-2 defeat.
Carthage started the match strong with a sweep of the three doubles matches by the scores of 6-4, 6-1 and 6-2.
In singles, Bartels won his two-singles match 7-5 and 6-3 to earn the first Calvin point, and Alipio following by overcoming a first-set defeat to win 0-6, 6-0and 1-0 (10-5).
The three, four and five-singles matches each went to third set tiebreakers, and the Firebirds came out on the winning end of all three. Sartori fell in three-singles 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (10-8). Castellanos lost his four-singles match 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10-4). Mario Neto (Boa Vista, Brazil/Reino) lost in five-singles 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (12-10).
NEXT UP: Calvin men's tennis will return to action on Saturday, March 28, when it opens MIAA play by hosting Hope College.
