DURHAM, N.C. – No. 56 Damon Gooch, Philip Nemec, Chase Helpingstine and Alberto Rojas all picked up singles victories as Elon upended Wofford for a 5-2 Southern Conference men’s tennis win – the Phoenix’s fifth consecutive victory and seventh win in eight matches – Saturday afternoon at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Facility on the Duke campus.
Elon (8-4 overall, 3-0 SoCon) swept the three doubles tilts to open the day as the No. 40 tandem of Gooch and Nemec ousted Stuart Robertson and Danny Manlow 8-4 at No. 1, Helpingstine and Carlin Murray toppled Alan Donald and Paul Bartholomy 8-2 at No. 2 and Rojas and Cody Stauffer MacDowell beat Scott Collins and Tinus Van Wyk 8-3 at No. 3.
Manlow (over Oscar Podlewski 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) at No. 2) and Collins (over Murray 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3) achieved success in singles for the Terriers (6-8, 0-1). Gooch (over Robertson 6-1, 6-3 at No. 1), Nemec (over Van Wyk 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4), Helpingstine (over Donald 6-4, 6-3 at No. 5) and Rojas (over Bartholomy 6-4, 7-5 at No. 6) all won for the Phoenix.
“Wofford is a good team and we were very fortunate to come out on top,” Elon coach Michael Leonard said. “The doubles point was very important today. Our doubles teams played the best they’ve played all year and helped us gain some momentum for the singles matches. We have another tough conference opponent coming to town now with College of Charleston here Tuesday (2 p.m. at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center).”
