NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Averett University men's tennis rustled up a commanding 6-1 win over Hardin-Simmons University at the Eyre Courts, hosted by Christopher Newport University on Thursday afternoon.
Playing its first team from outside the Southeast region all season, Averett (10-2) didn't seem to face any adversities from Texas-based Hardin-Simmons (6-8), dominating all the doubles matches to rope in the 1-0 lead, as it has been for the Cougars' win streak up to this point.
1-0 quickly turned into 3-0, as
Prabjeet Chandhok and
Lucas Fiandra rodeoed to two-set wins over the Cowboys' Brandon Curiel and Jordan Oberbillig, respectively. The aforementioned Fiandra cruised in his bout, not dropping a game throughout.
The Cougars officially clinched their eighth straight win of 2024-25, when freshman
Florian Bert got the job done against Hardin-Simmons' Zach Fowler, in a close 7-5, 6-4 victory.
As a result of the four points gathered, the rest of the singles matches would only require a third-set super tiebreak, if necessary. The only exception was
Prabjeet Chandhok, as his match went the distance before the Cougars' clinch. His third set went according to play, taking it 6-0 over Brandon Curiel to give Averett a fourth win in the books.
Matches rounded out thereafter, including an exhilarating one at No. 1 singles. Playing past the minimum in the deciding long tiebreak,
Satwik Kollepalli and opponent Payne Smith played out 22 epic points, but Cowboy Smith came out on top at the end, prevailing 12-10 to attain the first point for Hardin-Simmons.
Jaeden Mukkaladyil brought the team score to 5-1 with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-0 win over Nicholas Boquet, and his team-leading 12th win of the season.
Rafael Jodas wrangled up the Cougars' sixth point of the afternoon with a 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 win over Maddux Foster.
Averett has a quick turnaround for match play, playing hosts and No. 19 ranked Christopher Newport University tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m.
