FRANKLIN SPRINGS, Ga. (April 15) – In its final match of the regular season, the University of Mount Olive men's tennis team fell to Emmanuel on the road by a 5-2 margin on Saturday afternoon. 

With the loss, the Trojans drop to 10-9 overall this season with a 4-4 mark in league action. Mount Olive will either earn the No. 6 or No. 7 seed heading into the league tournament and will face Converse in the opening round on Friday, April 21, at 11 a.m., in Florence, South Carolina. Meanwhile, Emmanuel improves to 8-9 and 5-3 in conference play, while securing the fifth seed.

Despite winning the first session, UMO lost the doubles point to begin the dual match. In the first position, junior Guilherme Zotin de Oliveira and freshman Daniel Hammond battled to their fifth-straight win over Dorian Verrue and Joan Grosset 7-6 (7-4). In the second doubles, juniors Adam Ibrahim and Diego Ortega Cadahia fell to Parv Nage and Hassan Badran by a score of 6-4, before sophomore Elios Briand and freshman Bram Poel suffered a 6-1 loss against Indrek Soome and Julio Lopes. 

The Lions had the upper hand in singles, winning four of the six sessions. In No. 1 singles, de Oliveira fell short to Verrue in three sets 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 6-4, before Hammond replied with a 6-1, 6-0 win against Soome in the second position. In third singles, Ibrahim lost 6-3, 6-1 to Badran, while senior Israel Rodriguez Rojas was defeated by Nage by a 6-4, 6-0 margin. In the fifth slot, Poel registered a 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 win versus Alejandro Gomez. Freshman Kabir Chhabria was forced to retire at a score of 5-3 in the sixth singles. 

The Trojans will return to action at the Conference Carolinas Championship, when they face Converse in the opening round at the Florence Tennis Center on Friday, April 21, at 11 a.m.