The Oglethorpe men's tennis team faced its most difficult matchup of the season Thursday afternoon as they took on No. 2 Emory in the Woodruff PE Center in Atlanta, coming away with a 9-0 defeat. The loss drops the Petrels to 4-6 on the season.
The second-ranked Eagles featured four nationally-ranked individuals and a nationally-ranked doubles team up against the regionally-ranked Stormy Petrels. The visitors were able to hang tough in several matches and fought hard.
Emory won 8-2 in both the Nos. 2 and 3 doubles against senior Craig Borne/freshman Briton Richardson and freshman Judd Motz/senior Josh Rosenberg, respectively. The No. 1 doubles match was a battle, though, with the regionally-ranked pair of junior C.J. Antonio and senior Ben Hirsch taking on the No. 5 rated Emory doubles team. They held until it was 3-3, then were broken to go down 7-4. Antonio and Hirsch got a break of their own with the Emory duo serving for the match, but Emory put it away in the next game, winning 8-5.
Antonio took on No. 4 Alex Ruderman and took him to the wire in the match of the day. The regionally-ranked Petrel came back to win the second set and had a 2-0 lead in the third, but Ruderman rallied to take the two-and-a-half hour match 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. Hirsch took on No. 13 Eric Halpern and fell 6-1, 6-4, while Motz moved up to the No. 3 slot for the injured Kirk Zhao and took on No. 29 Rafe Mosetick. He was very competitive in the first set and had a chance to serve for the set, but fell 7-5, 6-0. Meanwhile, Borne played No. 30 Ian Wagner and fell 6-0, 6-0. Richardson fell at No. 5, 6-3, 6-0, while sophomore Jimmy Nuckolls fell 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6.
"I was very proud of our efforts against this very good team," said Head Coach Peter Howell. "We played them very tight in the top three singles matches. C.J. played his best tennis to date in taking the No. 4 player in the nation down to the wire, while both Ben and Judd showed themselves to be threats against nationally-ranked competition."
The Petrels will re-enter SAA play this weekend as they welcome regionally-ranked Birmingham-Southern to the Downing Howell Courts on Saturday at 9 a.m. before Millsaps comes into town Sunday at 10 a.m.
