Saturday at the Davidson Invitational

Davidson College hosted a four team fall invitational this past Friday and Saturday. The visiting schools included Furman, Appalachian State and UNC Charlotte. The weather on Saturday morning was very pleasant with bright sunlight and cool temperatures. Instead of random singles and doubles matchups, the schools played one another in a team format. In the morning singles, Furman took on Appalachian State while Davidson played UNC Charlotte.

The Furman / Appalachian State match was a good one. Two matches stood out to me as I roamed from court to court. Philipp Fuelkell from Furman played a tough match against Lee Floyd. These two went at it for some time with good rallies and plenty of service holds. Fuelkell used the drop shot quite often to his advantage. In the end he edged out Floyd 7-6, 7-5. Over the two days at the tournament Fuelkell won two singles and one doubles match. I was impressed with his groundstrokes and his consistency.

Another good match involved Peter Jacobs from Appalachian State and Ethan Asher. Both of these guys displayed consistent groundstrokes but Jacobs was able to run more balls down and came away with a 6-3, 6-3 decision. Asher showed a lot of emotion at times but he maintained his control. That win was one of four that Jacob recorded on Sunday.

Later in the morning the teams rotated for doubles, as Davidson took on Appalachian State while Furman played UNC Charlotte. In what turned out to be a heated match, Phillip Kloc and Lee Floyd of Appalachian State won 8-5 over their Davidson opponents. When Floyd called a ball long that the Davidson duo thought was clearly in, the two sides traded comments and later played some very aggressive and entertaining points at the net. Calls do not always go the way you want and you have to have the ability to let them go and not affect your game. I don't think it affected Davidson that much, but it did lead to some memorable points and interactions between the two teams.

My friend Alex stopped by just in time to catch the Kloc / Floyd doubles match and then he headed off to Chapel Hill for even more entertainment as UNC was hosting Notre Dame in football.

Time.