Worcester, Mass. – Playing in their first home match of the spring season, Clark University used three crucial three-set wins in singles action to hold off Johnson & Wales, 5-4, in non-league men's tennis action on Tuesday afternoon at the Corash Tennis Courts.
With the win, the Cougars continue to move closer to .500 as they have now won back-to-back matches to improve to 5-8. For the Wildcats, meanwhile, they see their season-best four match winning streak come to an end and now sit at 7-4.
Clark came out of doubles action ahead 2-1 following Spencer Pinkney (Falmouth, Mass.) and Andrey Samodaev (Boca Raton, Fla.) taking down Andre Barbero (Brielle, N.J.) and Nicholas Auffret (Holtsville, N.Y.), 8-4, at No. 1.
Things tightened up when Jason Chavenson (Upper Dublin, Pa.) and Taylor Farmer (Carmel, Ind.) bested Fernando Pinoargote (Guayaquil, Ecuador) and Lenny Siegel (Boca Raton, Fla.), 8-2 at No. 2.
The Cougars got the all-important second doubles win when Teodor Nicola-Antoniu (Bucharest, Romania) and Mateo Gomez (Bogota, Colombia) edged out Jorge Mancebo (Santiago, Dominican Republic) and Ryan Schiele (Lusby, Md.), 8-4 at No. 3.
The Wildcats quickly moved in front during singles action when Mancebo took down Ian Levy (Needham, Mass.) at No. 5, 6-3, 6-1 and Farmer got the best of Jacob Malicky (South Egremont, Mass.), 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4.
They extended their lead when Barbero took a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 three-set decision over Samodaev at No. 1.
Clark rallied, however, beginning with Pinoargote getting a clutch 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win at No. 2 over Auffret and then Nicola-Antoniu evened the score with his hard-fought three-set win over Chavenson, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.
Jimmy Keogh (Worcester, Mass.) ended up being the deciding factor as he and Schiele were locked in a three-set battle at No. 6. Keogh took the first set 6-2, before dropping the second to Schiele, 6-4. He then rallied to seal the win for Clark with a thrilling 6-3 victory.
Johnson & Wales is back in action on Thursday when they visit UMass-Dartmouth for a non-league matchup at 3:30, while the Scarlet and White won't play again until they open up NEWMAC actionnext Wednesday at Wheaton.
