Dukes Clinch First Win in Program History Against Elon

Tuesday, April 5

Harrisonburg, Va.

1 p.m.

James Madison University

Elon

4/5/2022 6:49:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery

HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison closed its men's tennis home slate in style, capturing its first win ever against Elon with a 4-2 victory on Tuesday afternoon at the East Campus Tennis Courts.

The Dukes improved to 13-4 and capped off an unbeaten 9-0 home record, while the Phoenix now sit at 11-7 overall.

It's the second time since 2019 that JMU produced an undefeated home mark, as it also went 9-0 that spring.

JMU earned its home finale win by capturing a pair of doubles victories and three singles triumphs.

The Dukes opened the scoring by grabbing the early 1-0 lead after clinching doubles. On court one, Holden Koons and Youssef Sadek turned in a commanding 6-1 win over Han Tsai and Daniel Martin, in which they didn't drop a single service game.

The rookie duo of Edson Sanchez and Mathieu Josserand secured the 1-0 lead for JMU, earning a 6-4 victory over Camilo Ponce and Kyle Frankel. That included overcoming a love-30 score in the decisive game.

In singles play, Elon evened the score with a straight-set win on court three before Koons put the Dukes back in front for good at the top singles spot. He downed Frankel, 6-3, 7-5, improving to 16-1 this spring, which includes an active 10-match win streak.

William Karpinski extended the lead to 3-1, as the senior came away with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Nicholas Campbell on court two in the final home match of his JMU career.

Elon took another straight-set victory on court four to draw within 3-2, but the visitors would get no closer.

After falling behind Tsai, 4-1, in the opening set on court five, Sanchez went on a tear, winning 11 of his next 12 games en route to a 6-4, 6-1 victory to clinch the team's win.

QUOTING COACH STEVE SECORD
"The doubles point was huge, it always gets the momentum going. That was the start we needed just to believe. It wasn't easy. Holden's match was tight and Will was great. I told him in the third set you may as well hit out. When you're moving and hitting, I can't guarantee you're going to win but if you don't I can guarantee you're going to lose. He listened and that was as big as any of the wins we had today. I wasn't sure where we were going to get that third [singles] point, Elon is a good team with a lot of depth. For Edson as a first-semester freshman to come in and step up like that, that kid is solid and I'm so happy for him and for the whole team."

Secord after Koon's 10^th Straight Singles Win: "Holden has done a great job. We say it over and over that he does all the little things. He competes. I wouldn't say this was his best match, but his opponent was really good too. He listens and responds and he'll have debates with you out there, but he made the right adjustments at the right time and put himself in the right position to get it done."

UP NEXT
The Dukes open a three-match road trip to end the regular season on Saturday, April 9 with a trip to Delaware for a noon start.