The No. 6 ranked Emory men's tennis team finished off its opening weekend at home on Saturday afternoon with a match against the NAIA's No. 2 ranked team in the Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs. Despite splitting the singles matches, the Eagles pulled away with a 6-3 win over the Bulldogs after sweeping the doubles portion of the afternoon.
In the No. 3 doubles spot, senior Samuel Dean and freshman Christian Liew had the most convincing win, taking down the Bulldogs' duo of Gallegos and Osorio by a score of 8-2. Next up, the Eagles sent out senior Ryan Glanville alongside his classmate Brandon Cohen. The pair of seniors also pulled out a win, topping the Bulldogs' pairing, 8-5.
The doubles match featuring Emory's ITA Cup Doubles runner-up pairing of sophomore Dean Kamenev and senior Nolan Shah against Tennessee Wesleyan's tandem of Rios and Leon was a thriller. After finding themselves tied, the match went to a tiebreaker – one that took 30 points to decide as Kamenev and Shah narrowly won the tiebreaker 16-14.
The Eagles entered the singles portion of the competition with a commanding 3-0 lead over the Bulldogs. Starting off in the No. 1 singles spot, Kamenev dropped his first set, but stormed back to win the final two and take the match by scores of 2-6, 7-5, and 6-4.
Shah also carried his momentum from the doubles match into his singles performance as he took down Gallegos in a closely contested three sets. Like his doubles partner, he dropped the first set, 2-6. Yet, he won the next 6-1, and the final set 7-6 (7-4).
Liew's dominant day continued into the singles portion of the match, as he swept his Tennessee Wesleyan's Pascual, winning his sets 6-2 and 6-0 to take the win.
The Bulldogs took the remaining singles matches to chip into the Eagle lead. Glanville fell in his match in three sets (6-0, 3-6, 4-6). Junior Emilio Van Cotthem also fell in his match, losing both sets by a score of 5-7. Rounding out the doubles play was freshman Robinson Luo, who narrowly lost in three sets (3-6, 6-2, 9-11). Yet, the lead the Eagles built in the doubles portion of the day proved to be insurmountable as they finished their opening weekend at home an unblemished 2-0.
Emory will now set its sights on the ITA Indoors National Championships which will take place next weekend. The event will span the course of three days, starting on Friday, February 23rd and wrapping up on Sunday, February 25th.