By Jeremy O’Neill
Staff Writer
Tiger Tennis finished the weekend of March 29-31 undefeated over five matches played by the men’s and women’s teams in a three-day span. The action started on Friday, with the men’s team in action against the No. 37 ranked Knights of Carleton College. At the conclusion of the doubles section of the match, the Tigers found themselves in a 2-1 deficit, but were able to rally back in singles to secure a narrow 5-4 win.
Jack Gray (C’19), Jordan Brewer (C’20), Fletcher Kerr (C’19), and Jack Metzger (C’21) each notched key wins for Sewanee in singles, with the doubles team of Aubrey Davis (C’20) and Jordan Brewer (C’20) earning an impressive 8-5 victory over Carleton’s 19th ranked duo of Leo Vithoontien and Jordon O’Kelly.
The Sewanee men’s team’s 2019 trend of close 5-4 victories continued on Saturday with another such victory over their rivals from Memphis in Rhodes. Just like on Friday, the Tigers dropped two out of three doubles matches and had to face a 2-1 deficit going into singles.
Once again, however, Sewanee was able to rally behind exceptional singles play, highlighted by a match-clinching win from Andres Carro (C’20) in singles that took a full three sets to decide, with a score of 6-7, 6-3, 6-3. Jack Metzger (C’21) also pulled off an impressive win in singles, as Metzger dropped the first set 3-6, only to win the final two with authority for a final score of 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.
While the men’s team earned a narrow victory on Saturday, the women’s team was also in action on the other side of the Bruton-Guerry Tennis Center, as they took care of business in a 7-2 victory over the Rhodes Lynx. The Tigers swept doubles play jump out to a 3-0 lead behind wins from the duos of Ellie Czura (C’20) and Catherine Owen (C’21), Caroline Adams (C’22) and Mary Jane McCaghren (C’19), and Sara Thompson (C’19) and Taylor Sprouse (C’20). In the singles portion of the match, Sewanee was able to win four out of six to secure a 7-2 victory in the overall contest.
Sunday was a special day, because not only did both teams earn perfect 9-0 victories, but the men’s team celebrated senior day, honoring the Class of 2019’s Jack Gray, Sean Halloran, Fletcher Kerr, Mac McCullough and Mike Tefel. Kerr made especially quick work of his match at No. 1 singles, winning in straight sets without dropping a game.
The Sewanee women saw similar success on Sunday, as their 9-0 score was supported by victories at singles from Caroline Adams (C’22), Abbie Vaughn (C’20), Morgan Downing (C’22), Alexandra Smyth (C’22), Nelson Tyer Jones (C’22) , and Kaylin Thompson (C’22). Earning the victories in doubles were the pairs of Adams and Taylor Sprouse (C’20), Jordan Besh (C’22) and Lilly Stephens (C’22), and Thompson and Sarah Gray (C’22).
Both teams travel to Lookout Mountain on Friday, April 5 for matches against Covenant, and return to the domain for matches on April 6 and 7 against Georgia schools Berry and Oglethorpe.