‘Cats' Season Ends in Tough 4-3 Setback to Dayton

Friday, April 28

Orlando, Fla.

12:30 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

vs. Dayton (quarters)

J.B. Gough action photo at A10 Championship

Photo by: Atlantic 10 Conference

‘Cats' Season Ends in Tough 4-3 Setback to Dayton

4/28/2017 9:29:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Gavin McFarlin - Associate SID

Match Results vs. Dayton
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DavidsonPhotos.com

ORLANDO, Fla. — In a match that came down to the No. 3 singles position, Davidson fell short in a tough 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Dayton Flyers Friday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Men's Tennis Championship at the USTA National Campus.

The team match came down to Davidson's Axel Fries and Dayton's Zach Berry at No. 3 and it went all the way to a third set. Both players split the first two sets by the score of 6-3. A five-time A-10 Rookie of the Week, Fries then had a 5-4 lead in the third set but was unable to close out the team point as Berry won the next three games to earn the 7-5 win.

Dayton (15-8) advances to face top-seeded Richmond tomorrow in the semifinals. It is the second year in a row the Flyers have ended the 'Cats' season.

Davidson saw its season end at 16-8, one of its best years in recent history. The 16 wins were the most in the regular season since 1994 when they had 16 as well. The 'Cats had 18 overall in 1998, earning three of those victories in the Southern Conference Tournament.

Despite the setback, Fries' freshman year was one of the best. The Stockholm, Sweden, native finished a team-best 18-5 in singles and went 15-6 at No. 1 doubles with senior J.B. Gough.

The Wildcats grabbed an early 1-0 lead by capturing the doubles points with wins at No. 2 and 3 spots. The pair of David Hager and Shamael Chaudhry pulled out a 6-4 decision, finishing the year 3-1 together. Then the duo of Jack Riazzi and Ricky Saad played nearly an hour-long match that ended with them scoring a 7-2 tie-breaker win to seal up the team point.

Davidson, which fell behind 2-1 during the start of singles play, went back up 3-2 with singles wins on courts five and four. Artem Khrapko took set one, 6-2, before beating Lorenzo Rollhauser in the tiebreaker, 7-5. Senior J.B. Gough in his final singles match won a thrilling pair of tie-breakers in straight sets to put the Wildcats back in control.

Gough ended his season with a personal-best 14-6 record in singles, giving him a career mark of 43-33 to go with a 30-20 doubles mark.

Dayton tied things up when fellow senior Ricky Saad had to retire after falling behind 3-0 in the third set. He had won the first set 6-4 before falling 6-1 in the next set to force the final set. Saad closed out his four-year career with 20 singles wins, including a 5-2 mark this year.