[Men's Tennis] Men's Tennis Defeats Mars Hill

MONTREAT, N.C. – On Friday, the Montreat Cavaliers reversed their early 2017 fortunes when they bested the NCAA's Mars Hill Lions, 6-3, at Montreat's Patricia Cornwell Tennis Center. In February. they'd fallen to the Lions, 9-0, on the road at Mars Hill.

The Cavs opened up their 2017 fall season home opener by taking two of three doubles matches. 

"The big thing was the doubles point. Taking two out of three doubles is so crucial going into singles," said head coach Andrew Cobb. "We've focused a lot on doubles and it's paying off now." Anh Hoang (JR/Miami, FL) partnered with David Garcia (JR/Madrid, Spain) to notch an 8-6 win at second doubles, while Jackson Plyler (SO/Weddington, NC) and Leopoldo Lucero (JR/Quito, Ecuador) delivered a convincing 8-2 win at third doubles. Ben Cree (SO/Belfast, Northern Ireland) and Lorward Choi (JR/Torrance, CA) engaged in a serve-and-volley slugfest against Mars Hill's skilled tandem of Roberto Ortiz and Fernando Neto before falling at first doubles, 8-5. After three doubles matches, Montreat led 2-1. 

The Cavs and Lions then split four relatively short singles matches, with fifth (Plyler) and sixth (Hoang) singles earning victories, and first (Garcia) and third (Choi) falling. All were straight set decisions. That left the overall match at 4-3, Montreat, with second (Lucero) and fourth (Cree) singles extending into third sets in their best-of-three matches. Both would prove comeback wins for Montreat. 

At second singles, Lucero took a one set lead over Mars Hill's Tom Farman on a first set tiebreaker. He dropped the second set, 4-6, and trailed the third, 4-1, after five games. The sophomore from Quito, Ecuador then rattled over five straight wins over Farman to take the deciding set, 6-4. 

Meanwhile, Cree was battling the Lions' Kyrel Trim through a nearly identical script at fourth singles. Cree took the first set via a tiebreaker, then dropped the second, 4-6. He trailed 3-0 in the third before bouncing back and taking the next three games to even the set. Trim was then forced to retire due to cramping.

The Cavs followed Friday's match and headed east to face the NCAA's Lenoir Rhyne on Saturday (recap to follow) and Guilford University on Sunday.

The packed weekend schedule had a clear overall objective: mimicking the AAC tournament's weekend schedule in the spring of 2018. "We had the goal of facing what we'll face in the AAC," said Cobb.

On Friday, the Cavs made good work of mirroring a trip through the quarterfinals. 

Next: On Saturday, the Cavs traveled to the NCAA's Lenoir-Rhyne and on Sunday face Guilford University at 1:00 p.m.. 

Pictured: Montreat's Lorward Choi hits a groundstroke winner in his doubles match against Mars Hill on Friday