KNOXVILLE, Tn- The Johnson University Men's Tennis teams went on the road to battle NAIA opponent Brescia University and D2 opponent Kentucky Wesleyan College. Despite a fight from the Royals, they would end up falling 6-1 to Brescia and 5-2 to Kentucky Wesleyan.
Friday's match against Brescia University began with a neck and neck battle on the third doubles court while the top two spots found themselves in a quick hole. The number 3 tandem of Jacob Keeling and Daniel Orahood would dominate their serves and score a late break to take the match 6-4. The Royals would lose the doubles point and look to rebound in singles. Brescia would prove too much for most of the Royals, but Keeling would again rise to the occasion at the number 5 spot. After scraping out a tight 6-4 first set win, Keeling would cruise in the second set 6-1. Overall the Royals would drop the match 6-1.
The next day, the Royals took the court after a slight rain delay to face the Panthers of Kentucky Wesleyan College. The Royals would drop court 1, but Keeling and Orahood would again jump out to an early lead and use their serves to take the match 6-4. The doubles point rested on the outcome of Freshmen Jaden Talley and Camden Jones who put up a heavy fight but dropped the match 7-5. Singles would prove to be exciting as the Royals would split the first four matches to go on court. Keeling and Orahood, playing at the number 3 and number 5 spots, would both come from behind to force first set tiebreaks. The Royals pair would finish up the win in the second set to give the Royals their first points of the day. With the Royals having to take both of the late matches to win overall, Gerett Benjamin at the 4 line and Cade Crowe at the 6 line extended their matches into tie-breaks, but would both come up a bit short.
Jacob Keeling would finish the weekend undefeated while Daniel Orahood would go 3-1. In looking back over both matches, Coach Hale said, "We played pretty well over the course of the weekend but we just got behind early on too many courts. We never stopped fighting and we almost pulled off some comebacks, but we just came up a bit short. We are still a pretty young team and we are still trying to figure out how we want to play and how we can win. Hopefully over the last few fall matches we can put it all together!"
The Royals return to the courts on Wednesday at Maryville College.