ROME, Ga. – A pair of doubles matches that went to a tiebreaker were the difference in Thursday's Collegiate Conference of the South Men's Tennis Championship quarterfinal-round match.
Huntingdon won all three doubles matches and went on to a 5-2 decision over the Scots. The Hawks captured the regular season encounter 6-3 on the Maryville courts back on April 1.
Both the No. 2 doubles pairing of
Josh Fisher and
Jonathan Crane and the No. 3 doubles duo of
Seth Green and
Ben Wyrick took their matches to a tiebreaker after drawing 7-7. Huntington won the No. 2 match 7-4 in the tiebreaker, and the Hawks prevailed 7-1 at the No. 3 position tiebreaker.
Maryville earned quick singles victories by
Kyle Shaver at No. 2 and Green at No. 4 to pull within 3-2 overall. Shaver rolled past his Huntingdon opponent 6-3, 6-3, while Green earned a 6-1, 6-4 decision.
Jackson Meyer was leading in the third set of his match at No. 4 singles, and Fisher was tied 2-2 in the third set of his match at No. 3 when the overall match was halted after Huntingdon accumulated the five wins.
"Really proud of the guys for their resiliency after a very tough finish to the doubles," Maryville head coach
Doug Corbett said. "We had 7-6 leads at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles that we couldn't quite put away, but we responded admirably in singles.
"I got a little bit emotional after the match in the huddle because they deserved to have that feeling of winning in the conference tournament the way they fought in singles. Very glad Kyle was able to finish his career a winner in his match. We will learn from this experience and come back even stronger next season."
Maryville's season ends at 7-12, but not before the Scots doubled their wins both in conference play and overall.
Thursday's Day 1 was all chalk at the tournament, with the Nos. 2, 3 and 4 seeds claiming quarterfinal wins. Huntingdon with the victory improved to 6-9 overall and plays Friday against top-seeded Covenant.
