Wildcats Fall Short in Opening SoCon Match, 4-3, to UTC

Sunday, March 6

Davidson, N.C.

1:00 p.m.

Davidson College

Chattanooga

Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com

Wildcats Fall Short in Opening SoCon Match, 4-3, to UTC

3/6/2011 8:09:36 PM | Men's Tennis

Gavin McFarlin -- Assistant SID

Match Results

DAVIDSON, N.C. — The doubles point proved to be the difference as the Wildcats fell one point short in their first Southern Conference tennis match of the year, falling to Chattanooga 4-3 on Sunday afternoon in the Knobloch Tennis Center.

Davidson, starting a six-match homestand, fell to 3-9 on the year and started league play at 0-1. It also saw its three-match win streak in the all-time series come to an end as the Wildcats fell to 9-10 since 1988 vs. the Mocs.

UTC won its fourth straight to improve to 5-6 overall and 1-0 in SoCon play.

Both teams split two of the three doubles spots, with each team picking up 8-2 wins to bring it down to the No. 1 spot. The Wildcats No. 2 team of Ethan Kallick and Walker Lyons earned their third doubles win together.

Then at No. 1, Calum Gee and Joe Schafer battled Roberto Vieira and Chris Smith back-and-forth until the Mocs' No. 1 team pulled through with an 8-6 win to give Chattanooga an early 1-0 lead.

Singles play was much the same, with all six matches being fairly close, before UTC pulled out the math with wins at No. 1, 3, and 4.

Gee and Schafer both got the 'Cats on the board when they scored straight set wins at No. 5 and 2 positions, respectively. Gee won his second straight singles match over the weekend to even his record at 4-4 with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over William Disterdick.

Schafer also evened his singles mark at 6-6 when he scored a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 2, his first win of the season at that position.

The Wildcats final point came from sophomore Kevin Moore, who netted his first career SoCon win with a 6-0, 7-5 win at No. 6. The sophomore pushed his singles mark on the year to 5-5.

Despite dropping their singles matches, Chris Mark's, Arie Hefter's and Lyons' three matches were all close. Mark, who moved up to the No. 1 spot, fell 6-4, 6-4 to Vieira.

Hefter forced extra games in each of his two sets before falling 7-5, 7-5 to Trent Cobb, and Lyons came close to forcing a third set when he dropped a 6-4, 7-6 decision to Jackson Tresnan at No. 4.

Davidson continues its six-match homestand with a 1 p.m. match against SoCon-foe Elon on Mar. 12.