Sewanee, Tenn. - The Lynx took on SAA-rival and perennial conference champion Sewanee at the Bruton-Guerry Tennis Courts on Sewanee's campus Saturday. Freshmen
Alex Lloyd and
Frank Stich played No. 3 doubles against Sewanee's Andres Carro and Jack Gray, a former NCAA qualifier in doubles. The Lynx got down an early break and struggled to break back and fell 8-5. Juniors
Ritwik Chatterjee and
Phil Lauture extended their doubles winning streak to nine matches taking down Fletcher Kerr and Jack Metzger.
Andrew Morton and PJ Shaw, the No. 8 team in the region, got down 1-5 at No. 1 doubles before storming back to force a tiebreaker that they won 7-4 to give the Lynx a 2-1 lead after doubles.
Sewanee won the first two singles matches in straight sets at No. 3 and No. 5 singles and pulled ahead 3-2. The Lynx looked good having won the first sets on the four remaining courts.
P.J. Shaw picked up his second win of the day at No. 4 singles defeating Ryan Olps 6-2 7-6(6) to even the match 3-3. Next, senior
Sairam Gudiseva lost at No. 6 singles to Jack Metzger 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.
Things looked bleak for the Lynx down 3-4 with two courts remaining. On the No. 1 court Chatterjee had just lost his second set and was getting ready to start a third set, and on the No. 2 court Lauture had lost the second set and was down 0-5 in the third against Jack Gray, the No. 19 player in the region. With his teammates rooting for him on the fences Lauture managed to hold off two match points and win five games in a row to even the set at 5-5. After dropping the next game Lauture held off another match point to hold and force a third set tiebreaker. On the No. 1 court, and after nearly four hours after the match started, Chatterjee gave up the first break and went down 3-5 to Andres Carro, the No. 6 player in the region. Carro served out the final game and clinched the match for Sewanee. On the adjacent court, immediately following the clinch, Lauture won the next two points to win the third set tiebreaker 7-5.
The Lynx travel to Centre to take on the Colonels tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET at the Top Seed Tennis Club in Nicholasville, Ky.
