Chattanooga, TN- The Covenant men's tennis team won an exciting match today against Berry College by a score of 5-4. The victory keeps their perfect home record alive and improves their overall record to 7-3.
Covenant started out strong at #1 doubles going up 7-4, but Berry's Marcelo Peterlini and Daniel Macian rallied from behind to take the first point 9-7. The Scots also dropped #2 doubles 8-5, but sophomores Andy Jones and Johnny Herberich pulled out their match at #3 doubles to put Covenant on the board going into singles.
Singles saw #3 John Hirte and #4 Stephen Woody face off against their doubles opponents Jonathan Surls and Elliott Nichols, and despite the 8-5 loss a mere hour earlier, neither Hirte nor Woody seemed to have any trouble one-on-one: Hirte defeated Surls 6-0, 6-0, and Woody disposed of Nichols 6-0, 6-1.
The Berry College Vikings had tougher competition at #2 and #5 singles though, and after #2 Daniel Macian and #5 Mark Saporsky closed out their wins, the Scots trailed 4-3 with only two matches remaining.
At #6, freshman Tom Yates improved his singles record to 4-1 this year, defeating sophomore Steven Weeks 6-4, 6-2 to make the team score all tied at 4, and the outcome of match was thus on the shoulders of #1 Josh Jeremiah, whose match had extended to a third set- Jeremiah had taken the first set 6-4 but dropped the second 6-2.
In the very decisive third set, Jeremiah's opponent Marcelo Peterlini had been struggling through cramps and was finally forced to retire with the score knotted at 4.
The anti-climactic end nonetheless improved the Covenant men's team to 7-3.
Men's results
Berry College was able to exact some of their revenge though, as their women had little trouble sweeping the Lady Scots. Berry's women are 10-0 on the season and have managed to win all but 4 of their 86 possible points. In fact, Brenau University, who is currently #7 in the country in the NAIA, holds claim to 3 of those points.
Covenant's women continue to flirt with the five-hundred mark as they now stand at 4-5.
Women's results
Both the men and the women will return to the court Wednesday, March 31 for the showdown against Reinhardt College. Matches will be played once again at the Champion's Club in Chattanooga.
