DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In 2011, the men's tennis team from Concordia (N.Y.) eked out a 5-4 win over Embry-Riddle. On Sunday, the Eagles (6-1), ranked second in the NAIA, returned the favor, topping the NCAA II No. 4 Clippers (2-2) by the same 5-4 margin at the Crotty Tennis Complex. The match, originally slated for 11 a.m., was delayed two hours due to high winds that brought a cold front through the area. Blustery conditions were still present when the match got underway and lasted for much of the four and a half-hour contest.
The match was a battle from the beginning as all three doubles contests required extra games to determine the outcomes. At No. 3 doubles, ERAU's
Peter Francis and
Simon Felix fell behind 7-4 to Concordia's Andreas Lindell and David Tisserand, but the Eagle tandem rallied to win the next three sets and knot the match at 7-7. Francis and Felix were unable to keep the rally going, however, and fell 9-7 to give Concordia its first team point of the day.
Embry-Riddle's
Chris Freeman and
J.R. Leonik engaged in back-and-forth battle with Daniele Piludu and Geza Bazula at the second doubles position and after playing 16 games, both pairs were deadlocked at 8-8. The tie breaker was just as close and in the end it was Freeman and Leonik who pulled out the 9-7 tie-break victory to make the team score 1-1.
Playing together for the first time in three matches, the top-ranked duo of
Adrian Bayh and
Patrick Besch jumped out to a 6-3 lead, but CU's Benas Majauskas and Tomasz Olfans fought their way back into contention and tied the match at 6-6. Both doubles teams won their next two games, resulting in an 8-8 tie. Once again, the tie-breaker went in favor of ERAU as Bayh and Besch put the Eagles up 2-1 with an 8-6 tie-break win.
Piludu pulled the Clippers level with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Bayh at No. 3 singles, but Felix put the Eagles back in front with a 7-5, 6-2 defeat of Lindell on court two. After Tisserand got the better of Francis (6-3, 6-2) at the No. 4 spot, top-ranked Freeman pulled out a tough 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) win over Majauskas at the top spot to make the team score 4-3 in favor of the home team.
With the match still to be decided, the focus shifted to courts five and six where both Leonik and
David Spennare had claimed first set wins against their respective opponents. Spennare, who took his first set 6-2, was unable to hold off Olfans in the second as the Clippers' No. 6 player won 6-4 to force a decisive third set. The final stanza saw Spennare jump out to a 5-2 lead, but Olfans won the next two sets to narrow the gap to 5-4. Down 40-0, Spennare came back to break Olfans and clinch the match for ERAU with a 6-4 win.
Leonik had the longest match of the day, staying out on the court for almost three hours against Mozer. Each player won a set by 7-5 margins, resulting in third set. Down 5-4, Mozer tied Leonik at 5-5 and after both players won another game apiece, Mozer topped Leonik 7-2 in the tie-breaker to pull out the win.
The Eagles will be back in action at 3 p.m. on Tuesday when they host NCAA I Eastern Kentucky at the Crotty Tennis Complex.
