NEED TO KNOW:
Match 1 Score: Piedmont 7, LaGrange 0
Match 2 Score: UC Santa Cruz 5, Piedmont 2
Record: Piedmont, 11-10 (4-2 CCS)

LaGRANGE, Ga. - Piedmont men's tennis closed out its CCS slate with a 7-0 win at LaGrange before falling to UC Santa Cruz in a neutral site, non-conference match in the afternoon on Friday in LaGrange, Georgia.

Match 1: Piedmont 7, LaGrange 0

The Lions left no doubt in a Friday morning rout over the Panthers, sweeping all three doubles lines in clinical fashion before rolling to straight set wins in all six singles matches.

Across the three doubles matches, the Lions dropped just three total games. The No. 3 team of Mark Backeberg and Amir Latipov did not drop a single game in a 6-0 win while Leyton Dunn and Connor Phelps won 6-1 at No. 2. Finally, Yannick Wassmer Navarro and Simon Johnstone cruised 6-2 at No. 1.

Needing three matches to provide the clinch, five of the six Lions quickly rolled to first set wins and it became a race to the clinch at the end. It was senior JC Foster who got it over the line for Piedmont, winning 6-2, 6-1 at No. 6 for his first career clinch.


 

In his final CCS match, JC Foster earned his first career clinch ?

Hear from the senior following Piedmont's 7-0 sweep at LaGrange ?? pic.twitter.com/py3Ib4QG4x

— Piedmont Men's Tennis (@PiedmontMTennis) April 11, 2025

Bryce VanOrder picked up his second win of the season at No. 1, cruising to a 6-0, 6-2 win at the top spot. Backeberg dropped just two total games in a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 2.

Freshman Leyton Dunn moved to 5-0 in dual matches this season with a 6-0, 6-1 triumph at No. 3. Fellow freshman Caelb McElveen was tested in the first set but prevailed, 7-5, 6-0 at No. 4 for his first career dual singles victory.

Finally, Latipov added a singles win to his resume for the day, with a clinical 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 5.

Match 2: UC Santa Cruz 5, Piedmont 2

Doubles competition was up for grabs until the very end, but UC Santa Cruz was ultimately able to pull it out late. 

Piedmont's top doubles team of Johnstone and Wassmer Navarro rolled 6-2 at No. 1 before the Banana Slugs evened things up with a 6-2 win of their own at No. 2.

That left it up to No. 3 doubles, where UC Santa Cruz was able to pull out a hard-fought win, 7-5, to grab a 1-0 lead in the match.

Needing four singles wins to take the match, the Lions were able to take three first sets. Unfortunately, the Banana Slugs banked straight set wins at No. 6, No. 5 and No. 2 to clinch the match before the Lions could add a point.

However, shortly after the clinch at 4-0, the Lions fought back with wins from Backeberg (6-0, 7-6 (5)) at No. 2 and Rohan Kavali (7-6 (4), 2-6, 1-0 (9)) at No. 4 to make it 4-2.

The final match was a grueling battle with UC Santa Cruz eking out a second set tiebreak and third-set match tiebreak to finalize things with a 5-2 final score.

Up next, the Lions will play a road match at Centre this Wednesday, April 16 at 5 p.m.

NEWS AND NOTES:
- With a pair of doubles wins on the day, Yannick Wassmer Navarro now has the Piedmont single season record with 19.

HOW TO FOLLOW:
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