Sports Tennis teams drop SoCon tournament heartbreakers in similar fashions Wednesday, April 24, 2013 • page 24
Andrew Wilson Sports Editor
O
ne team was looking for the Southern Conference tournament championship for the first time since 2007, while the other was making its first ever appearance in the tournament finals. The Elon University men’s and women’s tennis teams hoped to make two different versions of history April 21 at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. Both sides ended on the wrong side of history, but in eerily similar fashions. The only men’s SoCon title came in the 2007 season when the Phoenix swept the regular season and the tournament titles with an overall 23-3 record with a perfect 9-0 mark in conference. In 2013, head coach Michael Leonard’s Phoenix started conference action 7-0 before dropping consecutive matches late in
the season — April 7 — to Georgia Southern University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Entering the SoCon tournament as the No. 1 seed having won the regular season title, Elon was looking to make history in sweeping the titles for a second time in six years. They breezed through the quarterfinals and the semifinals on the way to a meeting with the second-seeded Samford University Bulldogs Sunday. “We have had a great year as a team,” said sophomore Stefan Fortmann. “The step we have taken from last year to this year is a very big one.” On the other side, the Elon women finished one match short of holding a share of the regular season conference title. The Phoenix finished 8-2 while College of Charleston came in with a 9-1 record to take the No. 1 seed. Flying high coming into the tournament having already broken the school record for most wins in a single season, the Phoenix, like its male counterpart, breezed through the quarterfinals and semifinals of the tournament on the way to matching up with the No. 1 seed College of Charleston with the tournament title on the line. “We were sixth-seeded last year,” said women’s head coach Elizabeth Anderson. “Having the chance to win the entire thing this year, it speaks to our character.” Following Saturday’s semifinal matches, both coaches termed the opening doubles point as the most crucial to being victorious Sunday. The men converted with No. 1 and 2 doubles, winning in back to back minutes to secure the early 1-0 advantage. That wasn’t the case for the women. Charleston junior Kelly Kambourelis and sophomore Jenny Falcone made quick work of Elon junior Viviana Stavreva and sophomore Maria Camara Ruiz at No. 2 doubles, 8-4. As the Elon’s lone senior Briana Berne and freshman Taylor Casey were battling on court three, juniors Jordan Johnston and Frida Jansaker won the tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles to put the pressure on Berne and Casey. The Cougars duo of senior Christin Newman and sophomore Samantha Newman got a timely break of the Elon pair to take the match 8-6 and the doubles point for
AL DRAGO | Photo Editor
Freshman Taylor Casey celebrates during the decisive No. 3 doubles match April 21 in which Elon lost 8-6.
Charleston. As both matches progressed to the singles portions, the men traded points with the Bulldogs when Fortmann, hobbled by a knee injury he aggravated the day before in the semifinals against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, dropped No. 2 singles to junior Elliot Barnwell. Minutes later, sophomore Jordan Kaufman finished off senior Alex Sajonz at No. 4 singles, 6-3, 6-3. “We played good doubles,” Leonard said. “We just didn’t come out in the beginning of singles like I thought we would.” Samford took the next two matches at No. 3 and 5 singles to pull out to a 3-2 lead overall and into a position that seemed almost insurmountable given the remain-
ing scores. Junior Cameron Silverman was trailing after dropping the first set at No. 1 singles while sophomore Juan Madrid was trailing at the No. 6 spot having dropped his first set as well. Though Madrid contested the first set, junior Garrison Laduca won it, but he was only able to win three more games, dropping the match 5-7, 6-2, 6-1. “It was really a good tournament for me,” Madrid said. He had a between-the-legs shot April 19 against Furman University and the match-clinching win Saturday against Chattanooga before prolonging the finals on Sunday. Earlier in the day, the women didn’t blow a lead of any sort like the men. They trailed