MERIDIAN – The Jones County Junior College men's tennis team dropped a 6-3 decision to defending NJCAA Division III champion Oxford University of Emory (Georgia) here Saturday afternoon in their season opener.
The Bobcats won two singles points.
JCJC's Taqel Lewis outlasted Peter Higgins in No. 1 singles, 6-1, 5-7, 10-5. Diego Leal beat Cullin McDonough 6-2, 6-1 in No. 2 singles.
Lewis and Leal teamed to win the No. 1 doubles match over Higgins/McDonough, 8-3.
OUE won the other matches.
Adib Zaida beat Chase Pennington in No. 3 singles, 6-2, 7-6 (7), Michael Pioso downed John Leggett in No. 4 singles, 6-0, 6-1, Shams Sohani defeated Taylor Tamberg in No. 5 singles, 6-2, 6-0 and Andrew Chow beat Josh Hester in No. 6 singles, 6-0, 6-4.
Zaida and Pioso downed Pennington and Luke Armstrong in No. 2 doubles, 8-3. Sohani and Akshay Raghuvam won over Hester and Brandon McCary in No. 3 doubles, 8-1.
In extra singles matches, JCJC's McCary beat Vignesh Sandaran, 8-1, and Blake Taylor beat Sandaran, 8-0. Armstrong lost to Chase Mahrlig, 8-0, and Peyton Ramsey lost to Mahrlig, 8-3.
In an extra doubles match, Tamberg and Leggett dropped an 8-5 decision to Sandaran and Mahrlig, 8-5.
The Bobcats will host Hinds in their next match at 2 p.m. on Feb. 18.