Wildcat Freshmen Trio Shine at Jeff Frank Invitational

Friday, October 2

Davidson, N.C.

All Day

Davidson College

Jeff Frank Invitational

Photo by: Sideline Sports

Wildcat Freshmen Trio Shine at Jeff Frank Invitational

10/3/2009 5:39:42 PM | Men's Tennis

Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID

Jeff Frank Invitational Results (Davidson) pdf

DAVIDSON, N.C. — The trio of Chris Mark (Union City, Calif.), Kevin Moore (Overland, Kan.) and Joe Schafer (Orchard Park, N.Y.) showed why they were highly recruited by Davidson, going a combined 6-0 in singles play to lead the men's tennis team on a successful weekend at the Jeff Frank Invitational held at the Covington Tennis Courts, Friday and Saturday.

Davidson, honoring their late head coach Jeff Frank who had coached the tennis program for 34 years and won 541 matches, played host to Furman, Winthrop and Charlotte at the round-robin individual team invite.

Leading the way for the Wildcats were the freshmen, who not only went undefeated in singles action, but also each tallied one win in doubles play too. Schafer paced the trio by going a perfect 3-0 in singles action. He captured straight set wins in taking home victories over Ciran Levi of Winthrop (7-5, 6-2), Jesse Hutchinson of Charlotte (6-4, 6-1) and Watson George of Furman (6-3, 6-1).

Mark followed his classmate with wins over Lulsa Stanic of Winthrop and Ryne Combs of Furman. He took home a 6-3, 6-1 decision against Winthrop and then closed out his weekend with an impressive 6-2, 6-2 win over Furman. The freshman teamed up with Walker Lyons (Wallingford, Pa.) in the final match of the invitational, and earned an 8-5 win as Davidson took all four doubles matches against Furman.

Moore captured his singles win over Winthrop when he took home a 6-4, 6-3 victory against Andre Merg. He closed out the invite by teaming up with Carter Braxton (Charlotte, N.C.) in doubles play against Furman and earning an 8-3 win.

Braxton scored a singles win against Garrett Leal of Winthrop (6-2, 2-1 ret.), giving Davidson eight players who scored at least one win during singles play.

Davidson's No. 1 and 2 singles players from a year ago, Eric Noble (Fayetteville, N.C.) and Lyons, had a winning weekend as well, with each going 2-1 in their singles matches. Noble won his match against Diego Toledo of Winthrop, taking a 10-5 tie-breaker win after both players split their first two sets, and scored his second win over Moritz Bernhoerster of Charlotte, 6-4, 7-5.

Lyons also earned a win over Charlotte, scoring a 10-8 tie-breaker win over Mike Anders, while the junior's second win of the weekend came against Andrew Mellow of Furman, 6-4, 6-2.

The duo also took part in doubles action, with Noble going a perfect 2-0 with his partner, Sam Burns (Banner Elk, N.C.), while Lyons scored a win with Mark as they took home an 8-5 decision over Furman's No. 3 doubles team.

Burns along with Calum Gee (Ayr, Scotland) rounded out the Wildcats who played singles action and scored at least one win. Burns took a 6-3, 6-3 win over Preetham Moras of Winthrop, while Gee ended the weekend on a positive note in his final match with a 6-4, 6-1 triumph over Chris Rhyne of Furman. The sophomore had dropped his first two singles matches to Winthrop and Charlotte.

Also seeing action at the invitational was senior Tareq Alani (Chapel Hill, N.C.), who played doubles matches with Braxton against Winthrop (6-8) and Noble vs. Charlotte (3-8).

Davidson remains at home as it will host the Jim Causey Invitational next weekend, Oct. 9-10.