Men’s Tennis Absorbs 6-1 Loss to Cornerstone
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C.- The Eastern Nazarene College men's tennis team fell to NAIA's Cornerstone 6-1 Monday in the first match of the team's spring break trip to the Palmetto State.
The Lions slide to 0-4 on the year with the setback while the Golden Eagles improve to 5-3 overall with the outcome.
Cornerstone registered two doubles wins to claim the doubles point and establish a 1-0 advantage.
Sven Grunenwald (Winden, Germany) and Diego Rodriguez (Barquisimeto, Venezuela) topped John Cocoma and Tomas Yacuzio 8-7 at the No. 2 doubles position.
Laurent Ruttkowski (Castrop-Rauxel, Germany) and Henry Siercke (Hamburg, Germany) dropped an 8-3 decision at the top slot to Aliaksei Kanstantsin and Mateo Jimenez.
The Golden Eagles' Tanner Howard and Matthew Hall won by retirement at the No. 3 spot against Alberto Escobar (Sevilla, Spain) and Carlos Gallardo (Tulua Colombia).
Cornerstone tallied five singles victories to lock up its fifth win of the year.
Grunenwald posted Eastern Nazarene's lone singles victory, prevailing at the No. 6 position over Jacob Stegman in a third-set super-tiebreaker. After conceding the first set 7-5, Grunenwald bounced back to claim the second frame 6-4 before edging Stegman 10-8 in the super-tiebreaker to record his first singles win of the year.
Siercke fell to Jimenez in a third-set super-tiebreaker at the top singles spot. After Siercke notched a 7-5 win in the opening set, Jimenez cruised to a 6-1 victory in the second set before rolling to a 10-1 decision in the super-tiebreaker.
Escobar fell in a third-set super-tiebreaker to Cocoma in the third singles match. After Cocoma seized the first set 6-4, Escobar clawed back to capture the second 6-3. Cocoma answered with a 10-3 win in the third-set super-tiebreaker to net his team-leading seventh singles victory.
Yacuzio outlasted Carlos Gomez (Barquisimeto, Venezuela) in three sets in a hard-fought match at the No. 4 spot. Yacuzio prevailed 7-5 in a first-set tiebreaker before Gomez triumphed 7-1 in a second-set tiebreaker. In the third-set super-tiebreaker, Yacuzio topped Gomez 10-3.
Ruttkowski suffered a 6-4, 6-2 setback to Kanstantsin at the second slot while Kyle Pierson (Redding, Calif.) absorbed a 6-4, 7-5 loss at the No. 5 position to Howard.
Looking ahead, Eastern Nazarene will return to the courts for a pair of matches March 3. The Lions will face Roanoke in the morning before taking on Lebanon Valley in the evening.