ELON, N.C. – Playing one of the most challenging non-conference schedules in the league paid off on Tuesday afternoon as the Elon men’s tennis team defeated the visiting Appalachian State Mountaineers, 6-1, in the Southern Conference regular-season finale to secure a spot in the upcoming league tournament. After dropping three consecutive 4-3 SoCon matches, the gritty Elon Phoenix (7-13, 6-4) won three of its last four conference matches to clinch a spot in the reduced four-team tournament field. With the loss, Appalachian State’s (11-9, 3-6) hopes of tournament play came to an end.

“This was a critical win for our team,” commented Elon head men’s tennis coach Michael Leonard. “Appalachian State is definitely one of the best doubles teams in the conference so winning the doubles point gave us a lot of momentum heading into singles. I feel like as a team we are really playing our best tennis right now. Some of our guys who struggled a little bit early in the year are really coming on strong.”

The doubles point, which has proved critical for the Phoenix in SoCon matches this year, was extremely competitive and a momentum changer. Elon’s Thomas Darling and Eric Turner got off the courts first, improving to 5-3 on the season with an 8-5 defeat of Britton Webb and Andrew McKinnon at number three. On court one, the match between Elon’s Chase Helpingstine and Alberto Rojas and the Mountaineers’ Trent Constance and Peter Jacobs was knotted at five before the ASU tandem broke to take a 6-5 advantage. Elon broke back to tie the score, but the Mountaineers won two straight games to take the match, 8-6.

Elon felt good about its chances with the point hinging on a tight match on court two. Elon’s number two duo of Philip Nemec and Cody Stauffer-MacDowell were riding an 11 match winning streak and had yet to be defeated by a SoCon opponent. Down 8-7 to Alain Humblet and Philip Kloc, the Elon duo successfully served from a 40-30 deficit to force the match into a tiebreak. Elon got down 2-1, but rattled off five straight points to go up 6-2 before taking the set on the second match point, 9-8 (3). The Phoenix has won the doubles point in all of its victories this year.

Elon got bookend wins to open singles play. Darling got off court six in one hour and 11 minutes, taking a 6-0, 6-3 win over Ezekiel Sansing. Darling needed just 21 minutes to put Sansing down a set. On court one, Nemec posted a 6-2, 6-4 result over Jacobs to give the Phoenix a 3-0 advantage.

Appalachian State got its lone point of the match when Constance earned a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Turner at number three. Elon came up with big 7-6 victories in the first set of the remaining three matches. Rojas used the momentum to battle out the match-clinching victory for the Phoenix, taking a 7-6 (5), 6-2 decision over Kloc on court four.

At number five, Stauffer-MacDowell ended a four-match losing skid with a hard-fought 7-6 (4), 6-4 defeat of McKinnon. Just two days after winning a singles match in less than an hour, Helpingstine was the final Phoenix on the court. ASU’s Humblet fought back from a 5-2 deficit in set one to force a tiebreaker, but Helpingstine managed to take the lead, 7-6 (7). Humblet rebounded with a 6-2 second set win, meaning the match would be determined by a super tiebreaker. After each gave up several match points, Helpingstine managed to get his fifth SoCon win of the year with a 7-6 (7), 2-6, 12-10 result.

The Phoenix will play its final regular-season match on Saturday, April 17 when it hosts non-conference foe East Carolina at 1 p.m. Prior to the match, Elon will honor its lone senior Clark Howell.