The NAIA No. 17 Dalton State men’s tennis team easily revenged a regular season loss to No. 15 Belhaven in a weather delayed first round of the Southern States Athletic Conference tennis tournament Friday at the Mobile Tennis Center.
The Roadrunners knocked off the Blazers 5-0 and were ahead in the four singles games that didn’t need to be finished.
Dalton State started with a sweep of doubles. At No. 1, Adam Hornby and Nickolay Nikiforov (DS) bested Alexander Puyol and Omar Lopez (BU), 8-1.
At No. 2 doubles, Sebastian Dartnell and Jose Ruda (DS) downed Jefferson Nino and Daniel Prato (BU), 8-6 and at No. 3 Joe Bray and Lucas de Souza (DS) handled Daniel Duarte and Rafael Siqueira (BU), 8-2.
The singles games that were completed had Joe Bray (DS) beating Daniel Prado (BU), 6-3, 6-4 at No. 4 and Lucas de Souza (DS) knocking off Rafael Siqueira (BU) at No.6, 6-4, 6-2.
“I’m unbelievable proud of the guys,” said Coach Zach Rogers. “ We experienced a range of emotions today and the guys were able to channel it and play their most complete match of the year. To be able to dominate the 15th ranked team in the country 5-0 is a testament to both our talent and resolve.”
The Roadrunners were playing No. 1 Seed Auburn-Montgomery beginning at 8 p.m. Central in the single elimination tournament.