Men's Tennis Wraps Up Non-Conference Slate with 6-1 Road Win at Samford

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Closing out non-conference play with its third road victory of the season, the Belmont University men's tennis team earned a convincing 6-1 win at Samford Saturday afternoon at the Pat M. Courington Tennis Pavillion in Birmingham, Alabama. The Bruins, who will enter Horizon League play next week touting a 9-5 record, were dominant throughout their lineup for Belmont's second triumph of the week.
 
Belmont gave up only seven combined games in doubles play before winning three of the six singles matches in straight sets. The host Bulldogs (7-8) collected just one match win, a three-set affair at No. 1 singles.
 
The duo of junior Tomas Luis and sophomore Ian Cruz blew past Samford's Will Gray and Darcy Nicholls 6-2 at No. 3 doubles, while graduate student Marko Ilic and junior Riccardo Trione defeated the Bulldogs' Maxwell Giddens and Sandeep Mohandoss 6-3 at the top doubles spot. Sophomore Gabriel Sardo and junior Alfred Wallin were leading Samford's Mohammed Ali Bellalouna and Harrison Williams 5-2 at No. 2 doubles when the Bruins clinched the all-important doubles point.
 
In singles action, Cruz wasted no time in putting Belmont up 2-0 as he recorded a double-bagel win against the Bulldogs' J.B. Pickard at the third spot. Both Luis and Sardo needed second-set tiebreakers to get past their opponents at No. 4 and No. 6 singles, respectively. Luis took out Nicholls 6-2, 7-6 at the fourth position while Sardo defeated Gray 6-4, 7-6 at the sixth flight.
 
Wallin had his opponent, Giddens, retire at 3-4 in the second set at No. 2 singles after Wallin took the opening set in a tiebreaker. Trione recovered from a 6-4 first set loss to Samford's Santiago Arredondo at No. 5 singles by winning sets two and three, 6-0, 6-4.
 
The Bulldogs' Bellalouna was able to overcome Ilic's 6-4 opening set win at the top singles spot with 6-1 and 6-2 second and third-set victories.
 
Up Next
The Bruins begin Horizon League play Thursday when they host Tennessee State at the Belmont Tennis Complex in Nashville. First serve is slated for 2 p.m. Next weekend, Belmont makes its first Horizon League road trip to face Southern Indiana next Saturday in Evansville, Indiana, and Tennessee Tech next Sunday in Cookeville, Tennessee.
 
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