Spring Break
ECU tennis loses two tough matches
Doubles point costs the Pirates
SID
Issue date: 4/8/08 Section: Sports
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Sunday afternoon, Davidson and ECU split six singles matches, but the Wildcats swept doubles play by capturing all three pro-sets to hand the Pirates a 4-3 non-conference setback at the ECU Tennis Complex.
ECU, which also dropped a 4-3 decision to South Carolina State Friday, falls to 13-9 on the year while the Wildcats improved their dual match record to 14-5.
Davidson set the tone early as Phillip Compeau and Eric Noble teamed up for an 8-3 triumph over Aleksey Kochetov and Henrik Skalmerud at the No. 2 position. The Wildcats followed by adding 8-6 and 8-7 (4) wins by Ethan Jaffee/Flaviu Simihaian and Sam Burns/Walker Lyons over Jaroslav Horvath/Henrique Viana and Bryan Oakley/Stephen Whitwell at No. 1 and No. 3, respectively, to take a 1-0 lead.
In singles play, ECU picked up victories at the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 6 slots.
Viana rolled past Noble (6-3, 6-1), Whitwell disposed of Jaffee (6-0, 6-1) and Oakley rallied past Scott Myers (4-6, 6-3, 7-5).
The Wildcats used a 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) win by Simihaian over Horvath at No. 1 to clinch the match after Lyons defeated Kochetov (7-5, 1-6, 6-2) at No. 4 and Burns dispatched Skalmerud in straight sets (6-3, 6-3) at the No. 5 position.
Friday's match was much of the same, as ECU lost by one point to South Carolina State.
South Carolina State rallied back after dropping the doubles point to win four of six singles matches and post a 4-3 non-conference victory over ECU Friday afternoon at the ECU Tennis Complex.
The Pirates used 8-4 and 8-1 wins by duos Aleksey Kochetov and Henrik Skalmerud at No. 2 and Bryan Oakley and Stephen Whitwell at No. 3, respectively, to jump out to an early 1-0 lead.
Henrique Viana and Whitwell turned in ECU's only singles wins by defeating Dimitry Lomakin (6-0, retired) at the No. 2 slot and Gabriel Meana (6-2, 4-0, retired) at the No. 4 position but the Bulldogs (12-2) quickly took control of the match by rolling off four straight victories.
After South Carolina State's Radek Pivonka and Tomas Dobrotka scored straight-set wins in the No. 3 and 6 singles matchups, the Bulldogs' Ivan Milivojevich overcame a first-set loss to Jaroslav Horvath to hand the ECU freshman a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 setback at No. 1 to tie the match.
David Grund followed by outlasting Skalmerud 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 in a No. 5 matchup to clinch the victory for SCSU.
Earlier, Pivonka knocked off Kochetov (7-5, 7-6) and Dobrotka cruised past Oakley (6-3, 6-1).
The Pirates will return to action Wednesday when they travel to Elon to face a nationally-ranked Phoenix squad in a non-conference meeting beginning at 3 p.m.
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