The Rhodes men's tennis team faced the Millsaps Majors on Thursday, March 28th.

The match started off quickly for the Lynx. The dominating doubles team of Colin Perry and Greyson Brilliant won a very quick 8-0 match at the #3 position. It was much different at the #1 and #2 positions for the Lynx. New found doubles duo of Eliot Blatt and Graham Sowden played with great energy and communication but didn't quite execute under pressure situations. "They had their opportunities to break back in 3 consecutive return games but just couldn't convert when it came down to crunch time", said Coach Mann, as Graham and Eliot lose 8-6. The top duo for Rhodes, Rob Steinwedell and Sanders Phelps, found themselves in a very tight match. After being down 7-5 and returning to stay in the match, Sanders came up with accurate crosscourt returns to break back. It was then on Rob to hold serve and continue the match. He started off with a big first serve that Phelps plucked off for a winner and there was no looking back after that. Once they got to the tiebreaker it was all about execution. After being up 5-4 in the breaker, the Majors came up with 3 great points to finish off the match.

Going down 1-2 after doubles was something the Lynx were not used to. They knew it was time to step up and everyone had to take care of their court. The singles started with Graham Sowden getting a default victory after winning the first 4 points of the match until his opponent became sick and pulled out. This brought the match to 2-2 with 5 courts to go, the Lynx had to take 3 of the 2. This is exactly what they did. Rob Steinwedell and Greyson Brilliant were dominant at the 5 and 6 positions and defeated their opponents 6-1, 6-1 and 6-1, 6-0 respectively. This put the Lynx up 4-2 with Sanders, Colin, and Eliot still on court. Eliot Blatt crushed the ball off of both wings to earn his 6-3, 6-1 victory against a tough Millsaps opponent, Charles Rees, making it look easy. This win clinched the match for the Lynx with a score of 5-2.

The remaining matches were the top players for the Lynx. The top player, Sanders Phelps played a gutsy match against a very strong Millsaps player Malte Schick. Unfortunately, Phelps couldn't convert in the big moments. In the first set Phelps started the match with a break of serve to go up 2-1 and was one point away from a 3-1 lead that would surely have broken the spirit of his opponent. Malte came up with a few great shots to stay even with Phelps and from there it was a dog fight. Phelps lost the match 6-4, 6-3 but plans to bounce back quickly for the next match on Friday. Colin Perry played with great controlled agression throughout the match. Colin went up 5-2 in the first set before his opponent managed to fight back to 5-4. Colin continued to play his game and managed to break serve to claim the set at 6-4. In the second set Adam Tilly from Millsaps and Colin were holding serve all the way to a tiebreaker. It was a very long, hard hitting, grinding match at the #2 spot and unfortunately Colin had to default at 3-3 in the second set tiebreaker due to cramping and hip pain. 

Rhodes will be back in action against Birmingham Southen on Friday, March 29th. We look forward to seeing you out there! GO LYNX!