Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Lincoln Memorial University tennis programs were both victorious at home Tuesday afternoon, each earning 4-3 decisions over Limestone. Both teams trailed in their matches before staging comebacks to take important South Atlantic Conference wins. The men are now 6-5 overall, 2-0 in the SAC, while the women tallied their 10^th straight win to move to 11-1 overall, 2-0 SAC.
 
While both teams managed to garner the 4^th point late into the day to clinch the matches, each arrived at the final margin in drastically different fashion. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters nabbed the doubles point and then the first singles off to take an early 2-0 lead. LMU's #2 player Valentina Ascarrunz continued her hot play, winning 6-4, 6-2 over Anamaria Kizner. However, the Limestone ladies surged back to win the next three matches, taking #1, #4 and #6 to gain a 3-2 lead. With her team against the ropes, Julia Valls then gave the Lady 'Splitters a much-needed boost by edging past the Saints' Rosa Amavizca 6-4, 7-6 (9-7) at #3. Valls managed to fend off six set points, five which came in the tiebreaker to earn the win.
 
"That was intense," said assistant coach Hugo Retortillo after Valls nailed down her point. "Julia's opponent played a very similar game style, and she had to be very patient and steady to maintain the match. Julia was pretty miserable playing that way, but she really stepped up for the team to get the job done."
 
After Valls heroics to even the match at 3-3, senior Amanda Dahlstrom got her second clincher of the year with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Ana Mora at the #5 line. 
 
The men's win started off with a trouncing at #1 and #2 in doubles to give the Saints the early lead. Thom Hermans and Nic Goslar recorded a win at #3, but the momentum with Limestone heading into singles. After Sebastian Colla fell in the #2 spot, Limestone had a 2-0 lead. Then the tide started to turn for the 'Splitters. 
 
LMU's #4 player William Jonsson fought back from a service break down, 4-5, to grab his first set 7-5, and Luca Pavan followed suit with a 6-4 first set win of his own at #6. That gave LMU a push heading into the next hour of the match, and when Thom Hermans also won his first set at #1 the Railsplitters had the edge across all three courts in progress. All three of them managed to close out their matches in straight sets to turn the tide and give LMU a 3-2 lead, just about the time Fabian Sjokvist won his first set at #3 singles. 
 
The senior from Sweden then served out a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Andres Zamorano to finish off the comeback and keep the 'Splitters clean in conference play. It was Sjokvist's first clinching point under Head coach Mark Walters during the past three seasons. 
 
"Fabian and Sebastian have done a terrific job for me personally, and for the University, and today was a team win that is largely due to their leadership," said Walters. "Sebastian was down in his match early and fought back several times to extend the play, and that gave us a chance to get our first sets at #4 and #6. That kind of thing can easily be overlooked when you lose an individual match, but he was very aware of it and it played a big part in the team comeback."
 
Walters also noted that the SAC will be a challenged every single time out, with nothing coming easy on the courts for his young teams.
 
"Limestone gave us all we could handle, and they really wanted it," Walters remarked of the Saints and Lady Saints' effort. "We have some kids who are fighting and battling like champions through tough matches to give us chances to win as a team, but we need the freshmen and doubles to step up and learn to compete with that same intensity and focus. We are in control of that ability to fight and claw and scrape, and we need that across the board if we want to be a solid program."
 
The LMU tennis teams return to the courts tomorrow for a reserve match against Bethel (N) University. The NAIA school will meet the Splitters indoors at the TIC for a 3pm start.