The match took four and a half hours to finish, but the Lipscomb men’s tennis team left with a 4-3 victory over Furman University on Friday night.
The Bisons (2-2) started the night off against the Paladins with a lead by winning the doubles point.
On the third line, Lipscomb’s Francesco Tacconi and George Wong played Furman’s Ivan Mitric and James Roelfose and lost the match 6-1.
Bisons pair Jorge Ortegon and Pedro Uribe then won their set 6-3 against Drew Singerman and Clarke Wilson, leaving it up to Lipscomb’s duo in line one to get the doubles point.
As Lipscomb’s Victor Chaw and Pablo Caffarena fought out their battle with Jake Munns and Jake Bhangdia, the two teams stood watch while waiting to see who would clinch the point.
After a long battle, Chaw and Caffarena managed to win the set 6-4 and got Lipscomb’s first point of the night, putting them in the lead.
“I think the doubles was more of an example of being greedy rather than us playing well,” Lipscomb coach Geoff Hernandez said. “It wasn’t our best, but we performed mentally, and that’s the thing we talked about all week. Even though it wasn’t our best, they still pulled out the win.”
The win from the doubles point gave the Bisons more energy and motivation to transfer their heat to singles play and try to win the night’s match with just three more points.
In the No. 2 spot, Caffarena was the first to finish the job, bringing the Bisons up 2-0. Playing against the Paladins’ Clarke Wilson, Caffarena won both of his sets 6-3 and 6-4.
Shortly following, Lipscomb’s Pedro Uribe lost both sets in the fourth line 6-4 to Bhangdia, which gave Furman its first point of the night. Lipscomb still led 2-1.
The Bisons lost their lead when Mitric, in the No. 1 spot, defeated Chaw in a long match that stretched to the third set. Chaw was leading after winning the first set 6-4, but he ended up losing the next two 6-2 and 6-3. The loss was also Chaw’s first loss of the season.
The teams were now tied at two.
In line three, Lipscomb’s Ortegon played Munns and also had a long three-set battle. Ortegon won the first set and lost the second set 7-5. He won the third set 6-3 and placed the Bisons back in the lead at 3-2.
The Bisons only needed one more point to take home the victory, and it was up to either Tacconi in line five or Jake Penny in line six.
Tacconi started his first set against Furman’s Singerman with a lead, but he quickly lost it and was unable to get back up. Soon enough, Tacconi lost both sets 6-4 and 6-2, which then allowed the Paladins to tie the score at 3.
The last players standing were Lipscomb’s Penny and Furman’s Henrik Atlevi. Penny lost the first set 6-4, but he continued to push through and won the second set 6-2. The match extended to the third set.
Penny was down 5-1, and Atlevi only needed to win one more game to end the night in victory for Furman. But the battle was not over.
Penny had other plans for Atlevi and came back with an epic win of 7-5, clinching the match for the Bisons.
Not only was Penny suffering from a wrist injury from several weeks ago, but Friday was also his very first dual match for the Bisons.
“To have a player down with an injury, never played a dual match before, down 5-2, and to come back to win and clinch it — that’s just beyond explanation,” Hernandez said. “That’s just pure guts, and that’s why he was here.
“We struggled a bit in the fall, but he stuck to our system, believed in himself, and he did it. And he’s going to keep doing it for us.”
Student assistant coach Alejandro Manzanares had good things to say as well.
“[I’m] really proud. Actually really proud because it’s a big day for Jake Penny. He came through in a really tough situation which he’s never been in before.”
Lipscomb will play against Samford on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Alabama.
.@LipscombMTEN grabbed an intense win over Furman on Friday night, and Adrienne Luu got to capture the celebration. pic.twitter.com/Tyurx9uwwT
— Lumination Network (@luminationnet) February 2, 2019
Photo via Lipscomb Athletics
Video by author