Men's Tennis Falls to Jacksonville 4-3 in First Round at the A-Sun Championship
April 20, 2007 | Men's Tennis
Johnson City, Tenn. - The No. 4 seeded Gardner-Webb men's tennis team had their comeback bid against the No. 5 seed Jacksonville Dolphins on Friday afternoon fall just short as the Dolphins defeated the ‘Dogs and advanced to the semifinals with a 4-3 victory.
The Dolphins took the doubles point with victories by their No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams. The GWU duo of Evgeny Slesarev and Gabe Veiga fell at the No. 1 spot to Jacksonville's Francisco Riveroll and Ernesto Ramos 8-4, while the tandem of Kim Ellis and Taylor Ferrier lost to Victor Vaz and Jordi Ballester of JU 8-6 at the No. 2 slot.
Jacksonville carried over the momentum from doubles play to win two of the first three singles matches completed to jump out to a 3-1 lead. Gardner-Webb won the next two matches completed to tie the match at three a piece. The deciding match was a classic.
Francisco Riveroll of Jacksonville outlasted Gardner-Webb's Roberto Vasques in a 3-setter under the lights holding on to defeat the senior from Sao Paulo, Brazil, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(7-5). The tiebreaker was tied at 5-5, before Riveroll tallied the final two points for the deciding match.
Scoring victories for the ‘Dogs was the three dynamic GWU freshmen. First-Team All-Atlantic Sun and All-Freshmen team member Evgeny Slesarev defeated JU's Ballester at the No. 1 spot in straight sets 6-4, 6-1. Fellow All-Freshmen team member Grant Van Rensburg dropped Marcos Oliveira of Jacksonville in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 at the No. 5 slot, while Rafael Altmeyer downed the Dolphins Vinicius Craveiro 6-3, 6-4, at the No. 6 position.
The Bulldogs finished the 2007 spring season with a 10-13 overall record and went 4-5 in A-Sun league play. The ten wins is the most that the ‘Dogs have had in one season since they made the move to Division I in 2002.
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No. 5 Jacksonville 4, No. 4 Gardner-Webb 3
Doubles
No. 1 Riveroll/Ramos (JU) def. Slesarev/Veiga (GWU) - 8-4
No. 2 Vaz/Ballester (JU) def. Ellis/Ferrier (GWU) - 8-6
No. 3 Vasques/Van Rensburg (GWU) vs. Oliveira/Craveiro (JU) -
DNF
Singles
No. 1 Evgeny Slesarev (GWU) def.
Jordi Ballester (JU) - 6-4, 6-1
No. 2 Francisco Riveroll (JU) def. Roberto Vasques (GWU) - 6-3,
2-6, 7-6(7-5)
No. 3 Ernesto Ramos (JU) def. Gabe Veiga (GWU) - 6-0,
6-2
No 4 Victor Vaz (JU) def. Kim Ellis (GWU) - 6-3,
6-4
No 5 Grant Van Rensburg (GWU) def.
Marcos Oliveira (JU) - 6-4, 6-2
No 6 Rafael Altmeyer (GWU) def.
Vinicius Craveiro (JU) - 6-3, 6-4
| 2007 Gardner-Webb Men's Tennis Final Season Statistics |
