Men's Tennis Stays Unbeaten, Defeats UNC Asheville 5-2 Sunday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Remaining undefeated on the season, the Belmont University men's tennis team defeated visiting UNC Asheville 5-2 Sunday afternoon indoors at the Ensworth Tennis Center. Improving to 5-0 in 2023, the Bruins captured the doubles point before taking four of the six singles matches against the Bulldogs (3-2).
 
In its lone match of the week, Belmont took control early and never looked back. Wins at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles secured the doubles point and the Bruins cruised in straight-sets at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 singles. Sophomore Gabriel Sardo prevailed in a three-set battle at No. 5 singles to give Belmont its fifth point of the day.
 
Graduate student Marko Ilic and junior Riccardo Trione quickly dismissed UNC Asheville's Jon Brann Reid and Rafa Serra 6-2 at the top doubles spot before junior Tomas Luis and sophomore Ian Cruz dispatched the Bulldogs' Chester Wickwire and Bruno Serra by an identical score at No. 3 doubles.
 
Sardo and senior Jack Randall were leading UNC Asheville's Sam Nicholson and Harry Thursfield 5-4 at second doubles when the opening point was clinched.
 
In singles action, Luis and Ilic made quick work of their opponents at the top two spots to put the Bruins up 3-0. Luis defeated Reid 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2 singles as Ilic bested Nicholson 6-3, 6-2 at No. 1 singles.
 
Trione sealed the match at No. 4 singles where he topped Wickwire 6-3, 6-2.
 
From there, the Bulldogs gained their first point with a 6-1, 6-4 win by Rafa Serra over Randall at No. 6 singles. In a three-set affair at No. 3 singles, Thursfield came back against Cruz after dropping set one, 6-2. Thursfield took sets two and three, 6-2, 6-3.
 
At the fifth spot, Sardo earned a 6-4 opening set win against UNC Asheville's Freddy Murray before dropping the second set in a tiebreaker. In the decisive third set super tiebreak, Sardo left only three points on the court as he got past Murray 10-3.
 
Up Next
After playing four of its first five matches at home, Belmont begins a challenging four-match road stretch next Sunday afternoon at Southeastern Conference stalwart Vanderbilt. First serve from down the road at the Commodores' Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center is set for 3:30 p.m. Live scoring of the match will be available at BelmontBruins.com.
 
Follow Belmont men's tennis on social media – @BelmontMTennis on Twitter and @belmontmtennis on Instagram – for complete coverage of the Bruins. Stay up to date with all of Belmont's athletic programs via the official app of the Belmont Bruins, available both in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.