Thursday, April 23
Elon, N.C.
10:30 a.m.
Davidson College Athletics
4
vs
3
vs. #8 Samford (First Rd.)
Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com
‘Cats Open SoCon M. Tennis Tournament With Thrilling 4-3 Win
4/23/2009 3:54:27 PM | Men's Tennis
Gavin McFarlin - Assistant SID
ELON, N.C. —Trailing 3-1, the Davidson men's tennis team charged back and took the last three singles matches to move onto the quarterfinals in the Southern Conference Tournament with a 4-3 win over eighth-seeded Samford on Thursday morning on the campus of Elon University.
Davidson picked up its first tournament win since 2007 when it defeated UNC Greensboro, 4-2, in the first round. The Wildcats improved to 7-16, while Samford finished its campaign at 6-16-1.
Scoring the Wildcats last three points of the match was junior Eric Noble (Fayetteville, N.C.), senior Scott Myers (West Palm Beach, Fla.) and sophomore Arie Hefter (Birmingham, Ala.), who each won three set matches to bring the 'Cats back.
Down 3-0 after the Bulldogs earned the doubles point and then opened singles play with wins at No. 6 and 2, freshman Calum Gee (Ayr, Scotland) cut the lead to two for Davidson with a straight set 7-5, 6-1 win at No. 4 singles over Brian Dushock.
Noble followed by forcing a third set when he took the second one, 6-3, and then finished out the second point for Davidson with a 7-5 win in the third set.
Myers tied things up when he took home the Wildcats' second thee-set win, coming back after dropping the first set, 7-5, with two 7-5 wins in the next two sets. He pushed his winning streak to two straight and earned his team-leading 12th singles win of the season.
It was then up to Hefter, and he responded with his eighth singles win of the year on a thrilling 7-6 tie breaker win (9-7) in the third set of his match against Oliver Reyolds at No. 5 to seal the victory for Davidson.
The sophomore had fallen behind 5-1 in the tie breaker, before coming back to tie things up at 5-all. Then after Hefter missed a forehand to fall behind 6-5 and one point away from dropping the deciding match, the Wildcats' No. 5 player struck a forehand winner and Reyolds proceeded to then double fault on his serve. Hefter went on to close out the match with an easy put-away volley at the net for the win.
Davidson will now face No. 1 seed Furman on Friday at 9 a.m. The 'Cats dropped a 7-0 decision to the Paladins earlier this season.
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