Men’s tennis wins two on Saturday

ST. LOUIS — After a tough 6-1 setback to Missouri Baptist on Friday afternoon to open a three-match road trip to the Gateway to the West, the John Brown University men’s tennis team rebounded with a pair of wins on Saturday, notching a 4-1 win over Health Sciences & Pharmacy (Mo.) and a 4-0 blanking of Grand View (Iowa) at Tower Grove Park and Francis Howell Central High School, respectively.

Against the Eutectics (4-8), the Golden Eagles leaned on junior Carson Thoma and sophomore Isaac Jordan to carry the team to victory. The duo teamed up for a clean 6-1 win over Anirudh Kalathil and Alec Johnson at the third doubles flight – after sophomore Hudson Dick and senior Woody Woodring dispatched Alvaro Montijano and James Bamberger by the same score – and also accounted for two of the three wins in singles play.

Jordan’s 6-1, 6-2 win over Johnson doubled the JBU lead to 2-0, and Thoma improved to 6-8 this season with a 6-2, 6-1 decision over Kalathil. Woodring’s 6-3, 6-2 win at the three over Gavin Brown clinched the contest, improving JBU to 10-6 on the season. Dick was moments away from his 11th win of the season when the match ended.

John Brown then made its way to Cottleville to make quick work of shorthanded Grand View (4-8).

With only four plays active, the Golden Eagles needed just one win at doubles (with the third flight becoming an automatic victory) to capture the point, and Dick and Woodring outlasted Igor Theodorakopoulos and Rafael Correa da Silva, 6-4, to improve to 10-7 as a duo at the top doubles flight.

With John Brown’s lead bumping up to 3-0 via default wins at five and six, Dick and Woodring captured the win in opposing ways. Woodring used a rather pedestrian 6-2, 6-1 win over Correa da Silva at the three before Dick finally claimed his 11th win at the top spot of the season.

After falling 4-6 in the first set, Dick rattled off a furious comeback with a 6-0 win in the second set and a 10-6 third-set tiebreak to clinch the contest for John Brown, which has won three of its last four outings.

JBU will now enjoy some time off until it takes on Bethel (Kan.) on Monday, April 18, at the JBU Tennis Courts. The match’s first serve is scheduled for 2 p.m.