by Kevin Buczek
WILSON, N.C.-The Barton College men's tennis team improved to 8-1 in non-conference play with an 8-1 home win against Randolph-Macon College on a cold Monday afternoon at the Barton Tennis Complex.
The Bulldogs boast a 9-4 overall mark and will next play local Conference Carolinas rival University of Mount Olive in a rescheduled match for Thursday, March 27 at 3:30 p.m.
Barton swept doubles for a seventh time and easily secured the team victory winning five of six singles matches.
Sophomore Rafael Ruiz and freshman Jake McCartney had to work the hardest en route to their top tier 8-6 doubles win. Junior Max Leppert and sophomore Daniel Radu had the easiest doubles match in the middle showdown winning 8-2. Sophomore Nick Genest and freshman Yaxi Pintado doubled up their opponents in the third flight 8-4.
Ruiz-McCartney feature the most doubles wins at 10-3 paired together while Leppert-Radu remained undefeated at 2-0 and Genest-Pintado improved to 7-3.
McCartney, Leppert, Radu and Pintado all won in straight sets while Ruiz rallied from a bad first set to account for the Bulldogs singles wins.
Barton rookies McCartney (6-1, 6-0) and Pintado (6-0, 6-0) had the most lopsided wins at atop and at the bottom of the lineup, respectively. McCartney, who moved to 10-1 in singles competition, was playing at No. 1 for the first time. Pintado moved to 2-0 at No. 6.
Leppert has the second most wins for the Royal Blue and White by increasing his singles record to 8-3 with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph at No. 3. Radu moved over .500 at 5-4 with his 6-1, 6-4 conquest at No. 5. Ruiz was swept in the first set but rallied to win 0-6, 6-2, 10-7 to also move over .500 at 7-6.
John Adam prevented the sweep for the Yellow Jackets by winning his fourth singles match by matching scores of 6-4.
Randolph-Macon dipped to 4-5 on the season.
