This season, head coach, Kelly Jones, has put his Paladins to the test; he’s created an intense spring season line-up against higher tiered teams and more intense tournaments, making for stronger competitors to challenge the ‘Dins.

Despite the high talent of the men’s tennis team, the morale has been low because of the losing streak of seven games.

This past March has been anything but nice to the boys, even when they travelled to the West Coast to take on Santa Clara University and Stanford.

Furman tied with Santa Clara in the singles competition, featuring wins from Jacob Behal, Matt Brown, and Tyler Droll. When the doubles competition rolled around, Furman struggled to break the tie, first losing 8-3 and then 9-8.

The Droll and Behal team walked away with am 8-2 win, but Furman still lost with 4-3.

The following day, the Paladins took on Stanford and Stanford unfortunately swept the board 7-0. The only Furman win that day was from senior superstar Andrew Mellow and Joel Cook in a doubles match, winning 8-5.

The team returned to the South with low spirits as it showed in their following three matches against College of Charleston, Elon, and UNC Greensboro.

Furman and College of Charleston battled a close matching, but ‘Dins were left on the losing side, 4-3.

Furman and College of Charleston flipped flopped on wins during the single matches. Now tied, both teams went into the double matches. College of Charleston took the first two matches, leaving the dynamic duo Droll and Behal a win.

Sadly, Elon and UNC Greensboro followed Stanford’s footsteps and destroyed Furman, 7-0.

But the match against Emory on March 21 was a different story. Opening with double matches, Emory snatched the first win over senior Mellow and junior Cook, 8-6.

Droll and Behal retaliated with a crushing 8-5 win over Ayush Bajoria and Will Adams. Then Alex Christ and Matt Browne got the other win over Jackson Isaacs and Alex Ruderman, 8-6.

The double matches proved to be close. Furman took home five out of six matches. The domination in both singles and doubles gave Furman the ultimate result of a 6-1 victory over Emory.

This win was just what the team needed to get out of the slump and remember their talent and strength as a team.

The ‘Dins will take on Wofford and Davidson before beginning the SoConn tournament at the end of the month in Elon, NC.