DANVILLE, Va. – Down a point headed into singles, Averett University men's tennis put all its might into six hard fought matches, and came out on the winning side in a narrow 4-3 triumph over Centre College on Thursday afternoon at the Averett Tennis Courts.
Averett (7-2) lost the first doubles match, but the all-reliable No. 3 pairing of
Florian Bert and
Alex Donnelly brought the dual's first section to the last doubles match to clinch point number one. No. 1 doubles duo
Prabjeet Chandhok and
Jaeden Mukkaladyil went tooth and nail with Centre's (4-7) Ty Bush and Ben Rueff, but barely fell 7-5 in the set tiebreaker.
With little time to regroup, the Cougars marched on. Bert sent a message to the Colonels with a 6-0, 6-0 drubbing of Isaac Flanery to tie the match at one. Mukkaladyil avenged the doubles loss from earlier, ousting Rueff 6-3, 7-5, as Averett went up 2-1 overall.
After that point, every last match went the distance, with the two teams refusing to lose their grip. Chandhok fell 6-2 in his final set for Dylan Dethridge, as Centre tied it up.
Lucas Fiandra got the lead right back for the home team, prevailing in his own third set, from a set down as well. Fiandra only lost two games the rest of his encounter with Chase Turley, as Averett took the lead once more, 3-2.
No. 1
Satwik Kollepalli and Bush battled for three close sets for the potential clincher. Losing momentum midway through, Kollepalli stood his ground, and in a tense environment, willed his way to the 6-4 set victory to claim the all-important fourth point, and the team win for the Cougars.
Centre brought the final team score to 4-3 by winning its own third set thriller, with Jett Anderson defeating Rafeal Jodas.
With the win, the Cougars extend their win streak to five, not having lost since March 9.
Hampton University comes to the Averett Tennis Courts for a non-conference dual on Saturday, March 29. The Cougars and Pirates get the morning action underway at 10:30 a.m.
