by Doug Page
MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. – A 1-0 lead in the match would be short-lived for the Barton College men's tennis team as the nationally-ranked No. 27 University of Mount Olive Trojans rallied for an 8-1 victory on Tuesday in Conference Carolinas action.
Barton (3-9, 1-3) secured its lone point of the match at the No. 3 doubles position and found itself locked in several tight battles in singles play. Mount Olive (11-5, 6-1) would win all six singles matches including a three-set victory at the No. 3 position and consecutive tie-breaker contest at the No. 5 position.
Sophomore Ermanno Galimberti and freshman Martijn Eleveld produced an 8-4 victory for BC at the No. 3 position in doubles competition to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 advantage. UMO's top duo of Armando Ferreira and Jack Middleton would even the score at 1-1 with an 8-3 win against freshman Oscar Marmestedt and freshman Diego Agudelo.
Martin Moser and Jose Cortijos Planas followed with an 8-6 victory at the No. 2 position against sophomore Rory Gaydon and junior Jesus Gil to give Mount Olive a 2-1 lead at the end of doubles play.
In singles play, the Trojans would extend their lead to 3-1 as Ferreira handed Gaydon a 6-4, 6-2 defeat at the No. 1 position. Agudelo looked to trim the UMO lead at the No. 3 position as he took a 6-2 opening-set victory over Cortijos Planas but would drop a 7-6 (8-6) decision to knot the match and fall 6-4 in a third set.
The next battle that came down to the wire would be at the No. 5 position as Pablo Safont Ferrer defeated freshman Alessandro Gerbino 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2).
Mount Olive closed the match with victories at the No. 2, No. 6, and No. 4 positions to complete the 8-1 victory against the Bulldogs.
Barton returns home to host Chowan University on Thursday at the BC Tennis Complex. The match between the Bulldogs and Hawks is slated to start at 3 p.m.
