Agate

ELON, N.C. – Four Elon men’s tennis seniors went out with a bang on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at The Jimmy Powell Tennis Center as the Phoenix won its 16th match of the season with a 6-1 victory over the Georgia Southern Eagles on Senior Day. With a win at Appalachian State in the final Southern Conference match of the season this  Thursday, Elon (16-6, 8-1) will earn at least a share of the league crown as well as the top seed in the upcoming SoCon Tournament. Georgia Southern fell to 10-10 on the year and 2-6 in the league.

“I am so happy for our seniors to finish with a good win at home,” commented Elon head coach Michael Leonard. “They have meant so much to our team over these past four seasons. Hopefully the year will end on a great note.”

All three doubles matches ended in 50 minutes or less as Elon only dropped a combined five games in the three contests. Senior duo Chase Helpingstine and Philip Nemec won five straight games en route to an 8-1 win, finishing off Derrick Davison and Alain Garrido in 35 minutes. The Elon pair has not suffered a loss since January and is now 17-1 on the season with a perfect league mark. Nemec owns 69 career doubles wins during his time at Elon, the most by a player during the school’s Division I era.

The Phoenix’s other senior tandem of Alberto Rojas and Cody Stauffer-MacDowell was next off the courts with an 8-2 defeat of Juan Melian Puigventos and Sebastien Felt. Finally, Cameron Silverman and Eric Turner completed the sweep by matching the score on court two, rolling by Mark Paetz and Edio Castenhel, 8-2. The duo is still perfect in the SoCon with an 8-0 conference mark.

Elon headed to singles play with the 1-0 lead for the 10th consecutive match. For the fifth straight match, Rojas was the first Phoenix off the courts as he turned in a 6-3, 6-0 decision against Castenhel at number four. The win was Rojas’ 14th of the year and he remained unbeaten against league foes at 9-0. Stauffer-MacDowell played at number six for Elon and got his first SoCon victory of the season, making it look easy with a 6-0, 6-2 win against Davison to give the Phoenix a 3-0 advantage.

In fitting fashion, a senior clinched the match for Elon as Helpingstine was the third senior off the courts with a 6-0, 6-2 defeat of Felt at number five. On court three, Turner had little trouble adding to the Elon lead, posting a 6-1, 6-1 decision over Paetz. Elon’s first four singles wins all came in 80 minutes or less.

Georgia Southern picked up its first point at the number one singles slot as Puigventos managed to defeat Nemec, 6-3, 6-4 for the Eagles’ lone point of the match.

Silverman gave Elon its final point of the day as the rookie won his sixth match in a row with a comeback win against Garrido at number two. After dropping the first set 6-4, Silverman forced a tiebreaker with his 6-2 second-set win. In the breaker, Silverman had four match points, losing three and holding off one of Garrido’s before winning the super tiebreaker and the match, 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10).

The Phoenix controls its own destiny in the race for the SoCon title as Elon and College of Charleston sit atop the league standings with only one loss apiece. Elon owns the tiebreaker by virtue of a win against the Cougars. Elon will travel to Appalachian State for the SoCon regular-season finale on Thursday, April 14. The match begins at 2:30 p.m.