Dalton State's Adam Hornby plays at UTC on Sunday
Chattanooga – The Dalton State men’s tennis team fell to the Mocs Sunday afternoon at the UT Chattanooga tennis courts, 7-0.
The Roadrunners felt good about the afternoon’s action. “We’ve shown that we have the ability to compete in NCAA D-I, said Coach Zach Rogers. “We just have to work on closing out matches.”
"It couldn’t have turned out any better,” said UTC Coach Carlos Garcia. “Obviously, I think Coach Rogers and the Dalton State Roadrunners are a fantastic program.”
In the final regular season game of Dalton State’s second season of athletics, the Roadrunners kept most matches close.
Unlike NAIA, in NCAA D-I tennis by winning two of three doubles matches you earn one point.
In doubles:
1. Lucas Plesky and John Peacey (UTC) defeated Adam Hornby and Nikolay Nikiforov (DS), 8-5.
2. Nic Wilson and Pavels Grigorjeus (UTC) defeated Sebastian Dartnell and Hadyn Fava (DS), 8-2.
3. Luke Saunders and Nick Wingord (UTC) defeated Joe Bray and Lucas de Souza (DS), 8-6.
By winning the three doubles matches, the Mocs went into the singles up by one.
In singles:
1. Grigorjeus (UTC) defeated Nikiforov (DS) in a super tie breaker, 5-7, 7-511-9 (9).
2. Plesky (UTC) defeated Hornby (6-4, 6-4.
3. Saunders (UTC) defeated Bray (DS), 6-2, 3-6, 10-6.
4. Wingord (UTC) defeated Fava (DS), 6-1, 6-2.
5. Wilson (UTC) defeated Dartnell (DS), 6-2, 7-6.
6. Gino Delavalle (UTC) defeated Souza (DS), 6-1, 6-0.
“The guys played much better than the score indicates. We had a real shot at taking one and two doubles and we were just a couple of points away from taking the top three singles lines.”