ECU Sweeps Bucknell 7-0

Wednesday, March 11

San Diego, Calif.

1 PM

East Carolina University

Bucknell

Photo by: Rob Taylor

March 11, 2020 | Men's Tennis

Box Score Box Score

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. – After rain postponed Tuesday's match, the ECU men's tennis team finally got its California trip started, sweeping Bucknell 7-0 on Wednesday afternoon at UC San Diego.

"First, a big thank you to (UC San Diego Head Coach) Timmer Willing for hosting our neutral site match, they were a great host and have a beautiful campus and facility," said head coach Shawn Heinchon. "For the match, I thought we started out very rusty in doubles. It looked like we hadn't played in several days. Once we got into it, I thought we started playing better and guys did a great job of carrying that momentum into singles. Looking forward to UC Irvine tomorrow, go Pirates!"

ECU's three-game road trip was scheduled to start on Tuesday with a match against UC Riverside, but weather issues forced the cancellation of that match. That made it 10 days since the Pirates had competed in a match.

The rust along with an unfamiliar doubles pairing caused the Pirates to get off to a slow start in doubles. The Pirates' pairing of Simon Labbe and Agustin Tamagnone ran their season record to 9-3 on the season with a 6-2 win over Cooper Bradshaw and Michael Owen on court one. But Javier Renones and Nelson Stafford, playing together for the first time this year, dropped a 6-3 decision against Guillermo Torres and Chunyu Chen on court three.

The doubles point came down to court two and luckily for ECU, Diogo Marques and Federico Masetti came through. The tandem, which is now a team-best 11-1 together, beat Ryan Jurist and Marwan Abaza 6-4 to give ECU a 1-0 lead.

Singles had a much better start for ECU as the Pirates won the opening set on all six courts. The first two ECU players to finish their matches were a pair of freshmen. Masetti won his fourth straight match and ninth in ten tries as he beat Per Astrom 6-1, 6-1 on court six. Stafford got his third dual match win and eighth overall by beating Torres 6-2, 6-4 on court five.

The clinching point came from Labbe. The sophomore topped Bradshaw 6-4, 6-4 on court three to put ECU up 4-0.

Marques and Renones both were in tight second sets, as each were tied at 5-5. Marques was able to win the final two games to finish off a 6-3, 7-5 win over Abaza on court one, while Renones did the same to beat Owen 6-2, 7-5 on court two.

The only Pirate who needed a third set was Tamagnone, who split the first two sets with Jurist on court four. Tamagnone came out victorious in the third-set tiebreaker to close out a 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (10-7) win. That gave Tamagnone 20 victories on the season, becoming the first Pirate to get to 20 wins since Renones, currentl volunteer assistant coach Kasey Countee and Ronny Georgi did during the 2017-18 season.

ECU will continue its jaunt through California as the Pirates head to UC Irvine to take on the Anteaters. That match will get started at 1 p.m., on Thursday afternoon.

Singles Results

Diogo Marques (ECU) dev. Marwan Abaza (Bucknell) 6-3, 7-5
Javier Renones (ECU) def. Michael Owen (Bucknell) 6-2, 7-5
SImon Labbe (ECU) def. Cooper Bradshaw (Bucknell) 6-3, 6-4
Agustin Tamagnone (ECU) def. Ryan Jurist (Bucknell) 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (10-7)
Nelson Stafford (ECU) def. Guillermo Torres (Bucknell) 6-2, 6-4
Federico Masetti (ECU) def. Per Astrom (Bucknell) 6-1, 6-1

Doubles Results

Simon Labbe/Agustin Tamagnone (ECU) def. Cooper Bradshaw/Michael Owen (Bucknell) 6-2
Diogo Marques/Federico Masetti (ECU) def. Ryan Jurist/Marwan Abaza (Bucknell) 6-4
Guillermo Torres/Chunyu Chen (Bucknell) def. Javier Renones/Nelson Stafford (ECU) 6-3