Men’s tennis comes up short on the road

The Troy men’s tennis squad came away from a two-match series in Jacksonville, Florida, empty-handed, falling to North Florida and Elon over the weekend.

The 0-3 Trojans were handily defeated in Friday’s matchup with North Florida, falling 6-1 in the opening day. The next day’s matches were much closer, but Troy met the same result as the day prior with a 4-3 loss to Elon.

The Trojans held Friday’s match close even after Jiaqi Duan and Pelayo Antuña fell 7-6 in the first match of doubles competition before Amer Bedwan and Mustapha Belcora won their match 6-5.

North Florida left Bedwan and Belcora’s match without conclusion as they downed Oskar Michalek and Andy Lau to pick up the doubles point with the 6-3 win.

Troy dropped five of the six singles matchups, with the sole victory coming from a career performance from Antuña. Antuña handed Joe Ellis a loss in two sets, winning 6-2 and 7-5.

Troy bounced back in Saturday’s matchup with Elon, coming away with several notable individual performances, but couldn’t get the win.

The Trojans fell at a disadvantage when they lost the doubles point after Duan and Antuña fell 4-3. Troy had several performances in singles play that marked season bests, highlighted by Andy Lau’s win in two sets.

Lau had his best match on the year, winning on a 6-4 and 7-4 card.

Following another win for the Trojans was Antuña, who took the match in three sets, winning 6-3, 1-6 and 6-4.

Following another victory from Michalek, the Trojans had one final shot to take the overall victory back home, but after Duan fell 6-2, 4-6 and 6-4, Elon escaped with the 4-3 win.

Troy men’s tennis team will be back in action this weekend as it travels to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to take on Southern Mississippi on Sunday starting at 11 a.m. Troy will then face Lamar at 10 a.m. the next day.