PHILADELPHIA, Penn. – After pulling to .500 in conference play with a pair of wins against Chestnut Hill College at home and Dominican (N.Y.) on the road, Post University Men's Tennis looked to keep the good times rolling against the Griffins, this time in a road matchup on Saturday afternoon. However, this time it would be Chestnut Hill avenging their loss less than a week ago with a 6-1 home victory which pulled them to .500 in the CACC while dropping the Eagles to 2-3 overall in conference play.

THE BASICS

Post University 1, Chestnut Hill College 6 

Post University (2-9, 2-3 CACC)

Chestnut Hill College (8-5, 3-3 CACC)
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
This time around it would be the Griffins getting the doubles point as senior Noah Cutting and sophomore Antonio Franquis bested seniors Anton Andersson and Niklas Langenfeld with a 6-3 win in the #1 Doubles. With sophomore Josh Cronje not playing today, a new duo would form in the #3 Doubles with sophomore Tobias Strauss and junior Samuel Rodriguez up against sophomore Siddharth Malik and junior Pedro Vicente which went the way of the Griffins, 6-2.

Winning the lone doubles match of the day for Post was junior Dante Despontin and graduate student Gustavo Kerber in the #2 Doubles, 6-1, over sophomore Tiago Lima and senior Joao Sousa, but Chestnut Hill headed into the singles with the doubles point, needing just three singles matches for the team win.

Despontin would net the only team point of the day for the Eagles, taking the #3 Singles in three sets from Lima after winning set one, 6-3, and losing set two, 7-6, after dropping the tiebreaker 7-4. In the 10-point tiebreaker to decide set three, Despontin would emerge with a 10-4 win for his third straight Singles victory.

Also going to three sets was junior Ivan Kolchanov, who was moved up to the #5 Singles following the removal of Cronje from the lineup. Looking to continue his three-game winning streak in the Singles, Kolchanov would lose set one, 6-4, against Malik and win set two, 6-3. In the 10-point tiebreaker, Kolchanov went into what some may deem overtime with his opponent before falling 12-10 to drop the match.

In straight sets, Sousa defeated Langenfeld in the #4 Singles by identical 6-1 scores and Strauss lost his first #6 Singles match since his game against Millersville last month to Vicente, 6-4 and 7-5. The top two matches which featured Cutting and Andersson for the #1 Singles went 6-4 and 6-0 for the Griffins while the #2 Singles of Kerber versus Franquis ended in 6-2 and 6-4 decisions in favor of Chestnut Hill for the 6-1 team win.

BY THE NUMBERS

• Dante Despontin is now a team-best 9-2 in doubles matches this season and since teaming up with Gustavo Kerber has won six matches in a row
• Also finding his groove in the Singles, Dante Despontin has been victorious in three straight Singles matches which have all come in conference play against Dominican (N.Y.) and Chestnut Hill College 
• Ivan Kolchanov saw his three-game winning streak in Singles matches come to an end with his #5 Singles loss in three sets
• Post University has now dropped 26 of 28 matches all-time against Chestnut Hill College since the two teams started playing each other back in 2009 – Both those wins for the Eagles have come in each of the last two years

WHO'S NEXT
Post University gets back at it on Monday afternoon with their final scheduled non-conference match of the season slated to take place against St. Thomas Aquinas College on the road at 3:00 PM. The Eagles have lost their last three matches against the Spartans and were swept in the most recent one back during the 2021-22 season, 7-0, at home. Overall, Post is 3-11 all-time against St. Thomas Aquinas since they started playing each other in 2006.