Royals Achieve First AAC Win In Program History

KNOXVILLE, Tn- The Royals men's tennis team picked up a historic first victory in the AAC conference on Saturday when they defeated the Bluefield University Rams on the Johnson University courts. 

The Royals got off on the right foot with strong doubles play as they were able to secure the doubles point with a strong showing on Court 2.  The pair of Camden Jones and Gerett Benjamin used their combination of strong serving and dominating net play to score the victory 6-3. With the doubles point in tow, eyes shifted to singles where the Royals found themselves down early on three of the top four courts. Slowly but surely, each court would start to battle back. The comeback started on court 3 as Jacob Keeling battled to win his first set 6-4, shortly followed by court 4 where Benjamin took his set by the same score. Courts 1 and 2, played by Kaden Buchanan and Noah Brown, would see their comeback fall just a little short, but would continue to battle. The Royals win would  be secured on court 3 as Keeling would put away his opponent with a second set score of 7-5. Benjamin would finalize the score at 5-2 with a 6-4 second set win. 

The Royals win marks the first in the AAC and their fifth overall to begin the season. "This is a big win for our program and something that everyone should be incredibly proud of. Ironically, our first match in Johnson history was played against Bluefield…and safe to say the scores were very different," Coach Hale remarked.  "We really set the tone early with doubles and then we battled hard on each singles court which helped to bring enough energy to prompt the two comebacks. This was a big first step and I can't wait to see how we are able to use this momentum to keep building this season." 

The Royals will return to action on 3/2 at home against another AAC opponent, Milligan University.