CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- The Covenant men's tennis team opened the spring season on Saturday with a split of its matches against Centre and Johnson. The Scots fell to Centre, 6-3, in a hard-fought contest before besting Johnson, 8-1.

The home matches took place at McCallie School in Chattanooga.

In a loss to Centre, the teams battled throughout the match as four of the six singles matches went to three sets. Centre (2-0) won three of those bouts and came away with a 6-3 victory in the process.

The back-and-forth match started with tight doubles matches. All three flights finished with 8-6 scores, but Centre took a 2-1 lead. Covenant's point in doubles came at No. 3 as Ben Luke and Camden Lashley combined for an 8-6 win over Faraz Ghamgosar and Ashton Witt.

The Scots took wins at the top two flights in singles play. Luke was a three-set winner Ghamgosar 6-1, 5-7, 6-4. At the No. 2 spot, Austin Dreslinski took a 6-4, 6-2 win over Bo Bush. Centre won each of the final four spots, with three of those needing a decisive set and a fourth going to a tiebreak in the second set, to earn the match win.

Against Johnson, Covenant picked up its first win of the season.

The Scots swept doubles play as Solomon Crouch and Dreslinski took an 8-2 win at the top spot over Kaden Buchanan and Noah Brown. At No. 2, Ethan Gibson and Chris Morton were 8-1 winners over Jacob Keeling and Daniel Orahood, while Lashley and Andrew Graham notched an 8-3 win at No. 3 over Gerett Benjamin and Stephen Damon.

Dreslinski picked up his second win of the day as he moved up to the top flight in singles and defeated Buchanan 6-1, 6-2. Morton was a 6-0, 6-1 winner over Keeling at the No. 2 spot and Lashley won 6-1, 6-0 over Benjamin at No. 4.

The Scots completed the win with wins at Nos. 5 and 6. Jeb Barnette posted a 6-0, 6-1 win over Cade Crowe at No. 5, while David Netherton collected his first career dual match win with a 6-1, 6-1 triumph over Ian Thomas at No. 6.

UP NEXT

Covenant hosts Birmingham Southern on Feb. 18 at 3:30 p.m.

CONNECT WITH THE SCOTS

Be sure to follow the Scots all season long on athletics.covenant.edu and on social media at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for up-to-date scores, news and other information.