GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Presbyterian College men's tennis fell to in-state foe Furman, 4-3, on Friday afternoon at the Mickel Tennis Center in Greenville, S.C. PC is back in action on Saturday with a home-opening doubleheader against Appalachian State at noon and Dalton State at 4 p.m.
The Blue Hose opened the match by taking doubles point with a sweep of the three matches. Ben Kelley and Joel Roberts got their first victory of the season with a 6-3 win over Furman's Steryous and Green at No. 1. Brandon Mills and Danny Bruce followed with a 6-4 win at No. 2 to give PC the 1-0 lead. Will Baird and Diego Manzanas would then take the match at No. 3, 6-4, to make it a clean sweep heading in to singles play.
The Paladins responded in singles, though, taking matches at No. 3, 4 and 5 to pull ahead 3-1, before clinching the victory with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 1. Ben Kelley won his first singles match of the season at No. 6 with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Steryous to give PC its second point of the match.
The most exciting match of the day came at No. 2 singles between Alejandro Bejar and Furman's Matt Browne. Browne pulled out to a 4-2 lead in the first set but Bejar came fighting back to claim the opening set 7-5.
The two would go back-and-forth in the second set with Brown taking it 7-5 to force a deciding third set. In the match tiebreaker, Bejar would prevail by a score of 12-10 to take the match 2-1 and give PC its third point to make it a 4-3 final score.
Bejar and Kelley each earned their first singles victories of the season, while doubles pairs Kelley/Roberts and Mills/Bruce each claimed their first wins of the season.
Furman 4, Presbyterian 3
Singles
1. Adam Steryous (FUR) def. Danny Bruce (PC) 6-2, 6-2
2. Alejandro Bejar (PC) def. Matt Browne (FUR) 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 (12-10)
3. Cameron Green (FUR) def. Diego Manzanas (PC) 6-1, 6-4
4. Ben Horst (FUR) def. Joel Roberts (PC) 6-2, 6-2
5. Josh Pistorius (FUR) def. Brandon Mills (PC) 6-3, 6-2
6. Ben Kelley (PC) def. Alex Steryous (FUR) 6-4, 6-4
Doubles
1. Ben Kelley/Joel Roberts (PC) def. Adam Steryous/Cameron Green (FUR) 6-3
2. Danny Bruce/Brandon Mills (PC) def. Matt Browne/Ben Horst (FUR) 6-4
3. Diego Manzanas/Will Baird (PC) vs. Stefan Rhodes/Alex Steryous (FUR) 5-3, unfinished
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (3,4,5,1,6,2)
