Eagles Fall In Tough Battles
Orlando, FL - Matches 3 and 4 of the spring break trip saw the Judson Eagles take on #7 ranked Southeastern and NCAA D1 opposition Charleston in what proved a tough test for the Eagles.
The first of 2 blockbuster clashes began strongly with the Eagles with the Eagles gaining early momentum from fast starts from #3 pair Nicolas Donoso and Cesar Otondo Villafan. Despite a hot start from the Eagles, they fell short in all 3 matches giving Southeastern a 1-0 lead going into singles.
Needing a boost going into singles #1 Alexandre Veltkamp led the charge, battling ferociously in a mammoth first set. This was compiled by #2 Chadd Kerrigan who also courageously fought for an early lead.
With early momentum on all courts the Eagles looked poised to stage an upset. But with tight defeats on all singles court Southeastern ultimately walked away with the singles points and a 7-0 win on the day.
The Eagles, however, backed up a tough loss with arguably their toughest test yet, NCAA D1 outfit University of Charleston who looked to bounce back after a close loss to UNC Wilmington.
Despite being major underdogs, #2 pair Alexandre Veltkamp and Julius Fortun stormed out to an early lead looking large favorites on the day. Despite hard fought matches on the other doubles courts #1 pair and #3 pair both ultimately lost 6-1 and 6-3 forcing the clinch and stopping #2 pair 4-3 up.
With hope gathered from #2 Julius Fortun and Alexandre Veltkamp's efforts, the boys went into the singles matches with renewed faith in causing a monstrous upset. #2 Chadd Kerrigan was the driver in this effort battling to 4-4 in the first set whilst on other courts the Eagles also battled hard.
But despite this the Eagles fell in 3 singles matches forcing a clinch and stopping otherwise close battles with the highlight of these 3 being #2 Chadd Kerrigan being 6-4 2-1 at the time of clinch.
With this clinch Charleston walked away 4-0 victors following the clinch. The Eagles will look next to their spring break finale on the 8th of March with Cedarville University.