JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Remaining perfect in South Atlantic Conference play, the Lincoln Memorial University men's tennis team earned its second-straight 4-3 victory Wednesday afternoon at Carson-Newman University. Picking up their third consecutive match win, the Railsplitters took two of the three doubles matches in short order to stake a 1-0 lead.
 
With the triumph, LMU improves to 2-0 in conference action and 4-8 overall as the Eagles drop to 0-3 in SAC matches and 5-4 overall.
 
"The men's and women's matches were polar opposites in how we got started, and then how we were able to finish," commented head coach Marc Walters. "The season has been mostly 4-3 type situations and the players are used to it," continued coach Walters. "Grabbing any conference win on the road is gratifying but pulling them out like that just strengthens us for the future as we know there are several more of these kind of battles looming."
 
Senior Xavier Marti and freshman Nic Goslar teamed up for a swift 6-2 win at the top doubles spot and the sophomore duo of Fabian Sjokvist and Sebastian Colla followed suit with a 6-2 win at No. 3 doubles, giving the Railsplitters the 1-0 advantage.
 
The match featured a see-saw turn in momentum as Carson-Newman roared back to take the first two singles points in dominating fashion at No. 4 and No. 6 singles and took a one-set lead at the No. 2 spot. Junior Iker Moure slowly fought his way back at the second flight, evening things up at a set apiece by winning a second-set tiebreaker, 7-4. He won the final four points of the tiebreak after trailing 4-3 and after being down 2-1 to start the third set, Moure grinded his way to five consecutive games and got LMU back to even in the match at two-all.
 
"That was a huge, huge turn of events, and Iker fought off some demons today," said Walters.
 
Moure, who played at the top singles spot the first 10 matches of the spring, was 0-10 despite several close losses. The singles win Wednesday spurred his teammates to make a comeback that was finished off by Marti, who won handily in 6-0, 6-0 fashion at No. 1 singles, and senior Jake Tuchmann, who clinched the match with a workmanlike 6-3, 6-3 victory at the fifth spot. It was Tuchmann's second match-clinching triumph of the season.
 
Coach Walters had praise for Tuchmann, with whom he had discussed the final scenario prior to the start of singles play.
 
"Some players thrive in that situation and Jake took it and ran with it today," added Walters. "I told him two hours before he played that it was coming down to his court and he just nodded, smiled and said, 'let's go'. You have to love that responses as a coach, win or lose."
 
Up Next…
The Railsplitters head to Charlotte, North Carolina, Saturday to take on Queens University of Charlotte in a battle of league unbeatens. First serve from the Howard Levine Tennis Center is scheduled for 11 a.m.
 
How to Follow
Stay tuned to LMURailsplitters.com, as well as LMU's social media platforms - @LMURailsplitter on Twitter, @LMURailsplitters on Facebook and @lmurailsplitters on Instagram, for complete coverage of Railsplitter tennis throughout the 2019-2020 season.