WILSON, N.C.-Seniors Cesar Grobel and Diego Salinas recorded singles victories to highlight a 6-3 Conference Carolinas men's tennis triumph for host Barton College over Erskine College Friday afternoon at the Barton Tennis Complex.
The No. 15 Southeast Region ranked Bulldogs have won three straight, improving to 3-1 overall. The Flying Fleet was setback to 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the conference as Barton won its league and home opener.
Grobel – the No. 32 nationally ranked Division II player from Sao Paulo, Brazil – controlled his match against Erskine's top singles player in junior Angelo Ciarrocchi (Port Elizabeth, South Africa). Grobel (2-2) never lost serve en route to his 6-2, 6-2 win.
Salinas (2-2) lost his first set to junior No. 5 Vincent Chauvette (Levis, Canada) before dominating the rest of the match. The Mexico City native completed the comeback over Chauvette by a score of 3-6, 6-1, 10-1.
Junior Pier-Alexandre Desilets (Beloeil, Canada) had the Bulldogs other singles victory in the third slot. Desilets (3-1) leads the Royal Blue and White with three singles wins after defeating senior Fabio Ciarrocchi (Germiston, South Africa) in straight sets (6-2, 6-3).
For the second time in three days, Barton built a commanding 3-0 lead by sweeping doubles. No. 1 pair of Grobel and freshman Gabriel Araujo (Recife, Brazil) won 8-3; Salinas and junior Renato Mendes (Sao Paulo, Brazil) gutted out an 8-5 win in the middle group; and Desilets and senior Leandro Peron (Santana de Parnaiba, Brazil) coasted to an 8-2 win in the last draw.
All three doubles tandems boast 3-1 records for BC.
Erskine got its three points from senior No. 2 Christian Ranguelov (Vienna, Austria) topping Araujo 7-6 (3), 6-4; freshman No. 4 Jack West (Belton, S.C.) downing Mendes 6-2, 6-2; and sophomore No. 6 James Hoatson (Harding, South Africa) outlasting Peron 6-2, 2-6, 10-5.
Barton turns around and hosts NCAA Division I Richmond University on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
