Lipscomb men’s tennis team played its last match against Georgia Southern before heading into spring break training with a 5-2 loss.
The Bisons (5-8) started the match losing the doubles play and were never able to get back up throughout the rest of the match against the Eagles.
But Lipscomb’s intense duo in line one, Victor Chaw and Pablo Caffarena, did not disappoint when they defeated GSU’s Stefano Di Aloy and JC Alcala in a win of 6-3.
“Line one’s [performance was] probably the best that they’ve played in a while,” Lipscomb head coach Geoff Hernandez said.
However, Lipscomb needed another doubles win to take the doubles point, and lines two and three were unable to get the wins for the Bisons.
Lipscomb’s Jorge Ortegon and Pedro Uribe, in line two, lost their set 6-2 while Jake Penny and Michael Tougher, in line three, lost 6-4.
The Bisons were down at 1-0.
“We didn’t have three courts of energy, so we need to do that better,” Hernandez said. “But we have time over spring break to work on that.”
Even though the atmosphere didn’t carry enough energy as wanted, the players still tried to transfer the energy they did have over to singles play.
But that spark wasn’t enough to help the Bisons pull themselves back up.
In line six, Lipscomb’s David Skrabut lost both of his sets 6-3, 6-4 against GSU’s Pascal Wagemaker, placing the Bisons down at 2-0.
Following that loss was another loss by Lipscomb’s Uribe, in line four, with an identical loss of 6-3, 6-4 against McCullough.
The Bisons were losing 3-0, and GSU needed one more singles point to win the match overall.
GSU’s No. 3 player Finkelstein retired in the third set, providing a glimmer of hope against Lipscomb’s Ortegon due to a recurring back injury during the match. This gave the Bisons their first point of the match.
Ortegon had won the first set 6-0, lost the second 6-3 and was looking to bounce back at 3-2 in the third before the match was forfeited.
That hope was quickly taken away when Lipscomb’s No. 1 player, Chaw, lost 6-3 in both sets to Muniz.
Although GSU had already won the match 4-1, the teams continued to play through the remaining players.
Lipscomb’s No. 2 player, Caffarena, played a three-set match against Di Aloy winning the point with a comeback of 7-5 in the third.
Shortly after the Bisons’ second win, Penny took another loss for the team against GSU’s Alcala in a three-set match, officially setting the score at 5-2 in GSU’s favor.
“I thought singles was a pretty good match,” Hernandez said. “Some matches didn’t go our way, but it was pretty even. I think it’s just about executing a little bit more [because we did] put ourselves in more positions to win…Victor’s match was pretty tight, Pablo did a great job winning 7-5 in the third, and Jorge bounced back well.
“We’ve just got to clean some stuff up, and we have a week to train to get ready for conference plays.”
Lipscomb will kick off the ASUN Conference against North Alabama next Saturday, March 23, at 10 a.m. in Florence, Alabama.