by Doug Page
WILSON, N.C. – The doubles tandem of freshman Oscar Marmestedt and freshman Diego Agudelo recorded a win at the No. 1 position for Barton College on Thursday, but Chowan University would come away with the 7-2 victory against the Bulldogs at the BC Tennis Complex in Conference Carolinas men's tennis action.
Barton (3-10, 1-4) briefly tied the match 2-2 to start singles play as junior Jesus Gil recorded a victory for the Bulldogs before the Hawks ended the contest by winning five consecutive matches. Chowan (8-7, 4-2) had to outlast the Bulldogs as five of the six singles matches would go three sets.
Marmestedt and Agudelo tallied an 8-4 victory at the top spot of doubles play against Chowan's Ghassan Alansi and Mariano Yeh to give the Bulldogs an early 1-0 lead in the match.
Sophomore Ermanno Galimberti and freshman Martijn Eleveld had their hands full at the No. 3 position as Rafael Goncalves and Mateusz Izycki recorded an 8-2 win for Chowan to knot the match 1-1. Adi Kaliakperov and Louis Proulx outlasted BC's tandem of junior Jesus Gil and sophomore Rory Gaydon, 8-5, to take a 2-1 advantage into singles competition.
Gil tallied a three-set victory at the No. 4 position for the Bulldogs against Proulx (1-6, 7-5, 6-0) to knot the score 2-2 and give BC some momentum across its other five singles matches. Alansi would give the Hawks the lead back at the top singles spot as he bested Gaydon 6-1, 2-6, 7-5.
Leading 4-2, Kaliakperov clinched the match for Chowan with a 7-6 (4), 7-5 victory against Marmestedt at the No. 2 position. The Hawks closed the match with wins at the No. 3 and No. 5 position as Izycki bested Agudelo 7-6, 2-6, 6-3, while Goncalves notched a 6-3, 6-7 (6) 6-3 win against freshman Alessandro Gerbino.
Barton hits the road this weekend for a pair of league matches against King and Lees-McRae. The Bulldogs then host three matches in a row beginning on April 11 against Belmont Abbey before closing the regular season on the road against East Carolina University.
