NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Belmont Men's Tennis team (3-4) closed out a four-match homestand with a convincing victory over in-state rival Chattanooga (2-5) on Saturday. Through tenacious doubles play and great singles matches, the Bruins were able to notch their biggest win so far this season, 6-1, to improve to 3-4 on the season.
BU and the Mocs were in a battle of resiliency for the doubles point. After being down in the set 3-4, senior Stephen Goldman (Lurz, Fla.) and junior Zak Khan (London, United Kingdom) were able to seal the victory against Pablo Llebeili and Luke Plaisted, 6-4, at the No. 2 position. Unfortunately, the tandem of sophomore Vincent Sterkens (Antwerp, Belgium) and freshman David Faulkner (Cirmingham, Ala.) was not so lucky at the No. 3 position, as they were held off by Jacob Marshall and Cooper Long, 6-4.
At this point, the doubles point came down to the final result on Court 1. By the time the Court 3 match was over, the Court 1 match was just heating up. Sophomore Hendrik Inno (Someru, Estonia) and freshman Marko Ilić (Zagreb, Croatia) were in a battle to keep the match alive as Niklas Gerdes and Simon Bustamante were leading the set late, 5-4. The Bruin pair was able to then trade serves and forced their opponents into a tiebreaker game. After going back and forth, Inno and Ilić were able to win the match 7-6(5) and seal the doubles point for the Bruins and improve to 6-1 on the season.
To open up singles play, Khan finished with a dominant performance against Luke Plaisted at the No. 4 position, winning in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3.
Despite a pair of very close sets, Inno was not able to pull out the win over Gerdes. After fighting tooth and nail in the second set, the match ended with a backhand into the net from Inno, and the final tally was 7-5, 6-4, giving the Mocs their lone point of the day.
Sterkens clenched the third point for BU to gain his third win on the season at the No. 3 position. After falling behind in the first set, he gave a tenacious effort and was able to finish off his opponent, Simon Bustamante, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Goldman recorded the fourth point the Bruins needed to beat Chattanooga. Playing at the No. 6 position, Goldman defeated his opponent, Cooper Long, 6-3, 6-3 for his third win on the season.
Freshman Jake Briggs (Marietta, Ga.) had a very big afternoon at the No. 5 position, as he earned his first collegiate win, 6-2, 6-3.
Ilić had a very long and difficult match but was able to grind to a victory. There were moments in which he had some finesse shots that left his opponent, Pablo Llebeili, stunned and in awe. After he won the first game of the last set, he fell onto the court surface in the exact same fashion as if Novak Djokovic were to win Wimbledon. In the end, the freshman demonstrated lots of tenacity, winning the match in three sets, 7-6(4), 6-7(7), 7-5.
Belmont returns to action on February 10 when it will travel to Normal, Ill., to face off against Wright State at 6:00 p.m.
