by Doug Page
BRISTOL, TENN. – The King University Tornado secured a 5-4 victory against the Barton College Bulldogs on Saturday at the Bristol Racquet Club. The Bulldogs trailed 5-0 in the match before rallying to win four singles matches in the Conference Carolinas men's tennis matchup.
Barton (3-11, 1-5) dropped a trio of 8-3 decisions in doubles play as the Bulldogs wouldn't be able to rally in singles play to complete the comeback against the Tornado. King (4-10, 3-4) quickly won a pair of singles contests to secure the victory in the match before the Bulldogs closed the match with four consecutive wins.
King's Lennard Neumann and Alejandro Feliciano would give the Tornado a 1-0 lead by recording an 8-3 win at the No. 1 position against freshman Oscar Marmestedt and freshman Diego Agudelo.
Junior Jesus Gil and sophomore Rory Gaydon looked to knot the match for the Bulldogs at the No. 2 position but would see Sebastian Lieflaender and Arturo Alfaro tally an 8-3 win to up the King lead to 2-0. Charles Jabaley and Lenny Keswani completed the sweep in doubles play for the Tornado by defeating the tandem of freshman Martijn Eleveld and freshman Hugh Ryder for the Bulldogs.
Keswani and Neumann notched victories in their matches at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions for the Tornado to help secure the match against the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs tallied their first point of the day as Agudelo outlasted King's Feliciano 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) at the No. 3 position. Gil recorded a win for BC by defeating Jabaley 8-1 at the No. 4 position, while freshman Alessandro Gerbino defeated King's Jorge Rojas 8-2 at the No. 5 position. Sophomore Ermanno Galimberti finished the match by defeating Alfaro 8-7 (7-5) at the No. 6 position to give BC its fourth point.
Barton heads to Lees-McRae on Sunday for a league matchup with the Bobcats. 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.
