SAN DIEGO, Cal. – Old Dominion men’s tennis fell short against Utah in its last match of the Ed Collins Invite by a 4-3 score on Sunday evening.
No. 1 Connor Van Schalkwyk and Yanis Moundir opened the doubles matches for ODU with a win over Reid Jarvis and Dante Teramo (6-3) after Codie Van Schalkwyk had to drop from the match. No. 3 Jean-Karim Olivier de Sardan and Adam Majchrzak clinched the first point for the Monarchs by downing Nicolas Calixto and Emmett Potter (6-4), suspending No. 2 Aryan Saleh’s and Thomas Nelson’s match against Berk Bugarikj and Max Relic (4-5).
No. 1 Bugarikj grabbed Utah’s first point of the match with a win over Connor Van Schalkwyk (6-3, 6-1), though No. 5 Monarch Saleh added to ODU’s lead by defeating Relic (6-3, 6-2). No. 3 Moundir put the Monarchs just a point shy of claiming the match after besting Teramo (6-4, 6-4), however Utes Potter and Charles Frey knotted the match at three after defeating Olivier de Sardan (6-4, 6-4) and Nelson (3-6, 6-4, 6-1) respectively. For the win, Majchrzak and Jarvis went into a tiebreaker set, though Jarvis would come away victorious (6-7, 6-2, 6-3) to give Utah the come-from-behind victory.
“Today's match showed that there are bigger things in life then tennis,” Head Coach Dominik Mueller said. “Losing a player five minutes before the match starts in such fashion and putting yourself in position to win shows the character of this team. They stepped up big time today and grew as a team.”
Old Dominion continues on the road as it begins Sun Belt Conference play against Georgia State on Wednesday, March 12 at 11 a.m.