Agate

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Tradition held true as Elon and UNC Greensboro met on the courts for what would prove to be yet another classic battle between these two men’s tennis teams. The match came down to the last singles match on the courts as it did in last season’s Southern Conference championship, this time featuring Elon’s Eric Turner and UNCG’s Yaroslav Litus. Despite a Turner comeback that forced a tiebreaker, in the end it was Litus who came away with the 7-5, 7-6 (4) victory to give the host Spartans a 4-3 victory and snap Elon’s eight-match winning streak.

With the win, UNC Greensboro moved to 14-4 overall and 7-1 in the Southern Conference. Suffering its first defeat since March 5, Elon fell to 14-6 on the year and became one of four teams with one loss in league action at 6-1.

The match was exciting right out of the gate with three competitive doubles matches. On court two, Elon’s Cody Stauffer-MacDowell and Alberto Rojas traded breaks with Litus and Jacob Wright before winning four of the final five games to take the match, 8-4. At the top doubles position, 49th-ranked Chase Helpingstine and Philip Nemec were down a break for the majority of the match with the duo’s 13-match winning streak on the line. Behind 6-5 to Orcun Seyrek and Timion Meijs, Elon broke serve to tie the match and used the strength of Nemec’s serve to move ahead, 7-6. Helpingstine and Nemec never trailed in the final game and earned the 8-6 win to clinch the doubles point for the Phoenix and move to 15-1 on the season.

After trading breaks early in the match, the pairs on court three moved into a tiebreak with the match tied at seven-all. Turner and Cameron Silverman used a 7-3 tiebreaker to defeat Ahmet Sarioglu and Chanon Varapongsittikul, 8-7 (3), to give the Phoenix a sweep of the doubles matches. Turner and Silverman, the reigning SoCon Player of the Week, have won six consecutive doubles matches and are 7-1 on the year.

In singles action, Rojas quickly gave Elon the 2-0 advantage with his 6-2, 6-4 decision over Varapongsittikul at number five. UNC Greensboro turned around and put its first points on the board when Sarioglu posed a 6-4, 6-2 win against Helpingstine on court four.

At number two, Meijs picked up two quick breaks to run out to a 5-2 lead over Silverman. The Elon rookie battled and won the next five games to take the first set, 7-5. Silverman continued to roll in the final set and put the Phoenix ahead, 3-1, with his 7-5, 6-1 victory.

In similar fashion to when these teams met in the SoCon title match last year, Nemec and Seyrek needed three sets to determine the winner. Nemec opened the match with a 6-4 first set, before Seyrek forced the third set with a 6-3 victory in the second. The Spartan junior quickly put Nemec down two breaks and eventually came away with the 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory and pulled UNCG within a point, 3-2.

Things were getting interesting on court three as Nemec finished out his match. It was also becoming evident that UNCG would take the point at number six and, as the excitement built between Turner and Litus, the Spartans’ Wright defeated Elon’s Tommy Darling, 6-3, 6-1, and made it a 3-3 score.

In the first set at number three, Turner found himself down 5-2 before he broke Litus and made the score 5-4. Holding the 6-5 edge, Litus broke Turner’s serve to take the set, 7-5. Litus used the momentum and broke service in the opening game of the second set before quickly moving ahead 5-2. As the fans began to shift over to court three, Turner won four straight games and was serving with a 6-5 lead. Litus broke serve and forced the tiebreaker that would ultimately decide the match. The UNCG senior came out on the winning end of the 7-4 breaker and secured a third straight 4-3 Spartan victory over the Phoenix.

Elon has only three SoCon matches remaining as the league standings continued to tighten after today’s result. The Phoenix will close out its home season this weekend when it hosts Wofford on Saturday at 1 p.m. followed by Georgia Southern on Sunday for Senior Day.