Though it was looking for its second straight conference tournament championship, the Elon University men’s tennis team were eliminated in the Colonial Athletic Association semifinals by the College of William & Mary.
The No. 3 Tribe swept the bottom three singles positions to advance to tomorrow’s championship match on its home court.
Tribe freshman Christian Cargil and sophomore Damon Niquet blew past Elon junior Robert Lindgren and redshirt freshman Neal Port 8-2 at No. 3 doubles.
Phoenix seniors Brian Kowalski and Stefan Fortmann answered for the Phoenix at No. 1 singles with an 8-4 victory over seniors Will Juggins and Aaron Chaffee in the matchup of First Team All- CAA doubles pairings.
With the first matches split atone, the doubles point came down to the winner at the No. 2 position. Senior Jordan Kaufman and sophomore Chris Humphreys were tied at seven with the Tribe’s Appleby and de Boers but couldn’t pull out the tiebreaker victory.
The Tribe extended its lead to 3-0 after winning the first two singles matches of the afternoon. First, de Boer handled Luck in straight sets 3-6, 6-2 at No 5 singles. Soon after, Niquet earned himself a straight sets victory over Kowalski at No. 4 singles 5-7, 6-2.
Elon finally got on the board with a win at No. 3 singles. Lindgren had an up-and-down match, but didn’t lose a game in his final set to defeat Appleby 7-5, 3-6, 6-0.
William & Mary clinched the victory with a win at No. 6 singles.
The loss drops No. 2 Elon to 10-13 on the season. It’s the team’s first losing season since it went 9-15 in 2012. William & Mary advance to Sunday's championship match against No. 4 College of Charleston.