LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga.— After facing three NAIA top-20 teams at the National Indoor Invitational to close out January, the Montreat men's tennis team squared off with an even tougher test on Friday afternoon: the No. 1-ranked Georgia Gwinnett College Grizzlies. The competition was stiff, and in the end, the Grizzlies came away with a 7-0 win over the Cavaliers in Lawrenceville, Ga. The 17
th-ranked Cavs now sit at 2-3 overall this spring.
Georgia Gwinnett (5-0), who has lost just one singles point this season, started off on a strong foot by taking the doubles point.
Luigi Moretti and
Adam Nagoudi pushed the hosts highly-ranked No. 1 doubles pairing but ultimately dropped the match 7-5. Meanwhile,
Ryan Little and
Anouar Braham took four games in the No. 2 pairing before falling in their doubles match, 6-4.
Nagoudi also tested the Grizzlies the most on the singles court. After taking the opening set in six-straight games, a 6-2 defeat in set two meant Nagoudi was headed to a tiebreaker on the No. 3 singles court. That battle went back and forth, but the Grizzles eventually squeezed out the result with a 10-7 tiebreaker triumph.
Montreat dropped the other five singles matches on Friday in straight sets.
Nicolas Lopez fought to take six games over two sets in the No. 6 singles defeat (6-4, 6-2), while
Denilson Martinez (6-3, 6-2) and Moretti (6-2, 6-2) won five and four games, respectively, in the No. 2 and No. 1 singles clashes.
The Montreat men's tennis team will keep its eyes on Georgia Gwinnett and Lawrenceville, Ga. as they are currently scheduled to return for the second Grizzly Invitational on Feb. 18-20.
