Air Force men’s tennis secured a 6-1 victory over Gardner-Webb on Friday night at the USAFA Indoor Tennis Courts. The Falcons captured the doubles point with wins at No. 3 and No. 2 positions. Phillip Deaton and Matthew Staton defeated Bourne and Van Wijk 6-4 at No. 3, while AJ Moore and Langdon Tingleaf clinched the point by overcoming Patry and Zeiger 7-5 at No. 2.
In singles play, Air Force dropped the opening match at No. 1 but then won the remaining five matches. With the score tied at 1-1, Deaton put Air Force ahead by beating Boyd Schreiber in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1. Moore followed with a straight-set win over Kaua Cressoni, 6-4, 6-3, and Tingleaf secured the overall team victory after defeating Johan Van Wijk in three sets, 6-0, 1-6, 6-4.
Tyler Leaird earned his first dual singles win of the season against Adam Patry with a score of 6-3, 6-3 at No. 6 singles. Staton completed the night for Air Force by winning over Noah Zeiger in a close match: 6-7 (5), 6-3, [10-7].
Head coach Evan Urbina commented on the team’s performance: “Pack the house tonight was incredible! We are so grateful to the fans and cadets who supported our team. The doubles point was back and forth, and I’m glad Phil and Matt–who were playing together for the first time–were able to execute the fundamentals and get us going. In singles, Langdon got his first clinch in a third setter. Proud of the win, and we’re looking forward to Sunday against NAU.”
Air Force will next face Northern Arizona on Sunday.
Gardner-Webb’s only point came from Alexandre Bergeron’s win over Jack Brown at No. 1 singles (6-2, 6-1). In doubles play, Cressoni and Schreiber took a win for Gardner-Webb against Brown and Leaird (6-3).
The order of finish for doubles was courts three, one, then two; for singles it was one through six in sequence except that court six finished before court five.
