DAVIDSON, N.C. — The Davidson men’s tennis team started out February the way it ended January, with another win, their fourth in a row as the Wildcats rolled to a 6-1 decision over visiting Gardner-Webb on Wednesday afternoon at the Knobloch Tennis Center.
Davidson remained unbeaten at home, improving to 4-0, while it saw its overall record go to 4-1. Gardner-Webb fell to 0-3 on the season.
The freshmen tandem of
Joe Schafer (Orchard Park, N.Y.) and
Chris Mark (Union City, Calif.) continued to impress in the early stages of their first year, remaining undefeated in singles play as the duo led the Wildcats to wins in five of the six singles matches.
Schafer tallied a 6-1, 6-2 decision oer Andrew Veeder at No. 2 singles, his second win at the position and fourth victory overall. The freshman just nearly missed going perfect on the day, falling with doubles partner
Eric Noble (Fayetteville, N.C.), 9-7, at No. 1.
Mark started off the day by helping seal the doubles point when he and partner
Sam Burns (Elk Banner, N.C.) scored a 9-7 win at No. 3 to improve to 4-1 as a team. The freshman then ran his singles record to a perfect 5-0 with a 6-4, 6-0 victory at No. 4 singles over Rafael Altmayer.
The duo of
Calum Gee (Ayr, Scotland) and
Walker Lyons (Wallingford, Pa.) also had a strong afternoon in both doubles and singles action. The duo ran their doubles mark to 4-0, all at the No. 2 spot, when they cruised to an 8-2 win over Jeremie Tardif.
The duo then each ran their singles records to 3-1 with wins at the No. 3 and 5 positions, respectively. Lyons won a tie breaker in his first set,7-6, before then shutting out his opponent, 6-0, in the next set to seal up the singles win.
Gee also won in straight sets, taking a 6-4, 6-3 match over Tardif at No. 5.
Scoring the final Wildcat point on the afternoon, and also tallying a perfect day, was Burns. The senior won his second straight match with a nice 6-3, 6-2 victory at the No. 6 position.
Davidson will take some time off before gearing up for its first Southern Conference match of the season, Feb. 14. The Wildcats will travel to Furman, currently ranked 59th in the latest ITA poll, for a 1 p.m. match.