Runnin' Buldogs Extend Win Streak, Defend Home Court with 5-2 Win Against Charlotte
February 21, 2013 | Men's Tennis
Boiling Springs, N.C. - Gardner-Webb's men's tennis team won a dramatic doubles point, carrying the momentum into four singles victories and a 5-2 home win over Charlotte to push the Runnin' Bulldogs' win streak to four matches.
GWU (4-3) jumped to an early advantage in doubles play, earning a 6-0 lead at the No. 3 position thanks to a hot start from the duo of Benjamin Kaszás and Brendan Dempsey. The pair seemed poised to cruise to an easy win that would leave it up to either the No. 1 pairing of Adam Knutsson-Sundblad and Matthew Parker or the No. 2 tandem of Ernest Alberch and Nikita Zverkov to pick up a win.
While the No. 1 and 2 doubles matches remained tight, Charlotte's No. 3 Massallé Ferrer/Shanok pairing roared back to take a 7-6 lead. After Alberch and Zverkov finished off Charlotte's Paul Cisti/Alex Weber duo by an 8-6 margin, the 49ers (3-5) countered by wrapping up an 8-6 win at the No. 1 doubles position from Khalil/Kwasniewicz.
On the ropes, the No. 3 team held serve to force a tiebreak. From there, Dempsey and Kaszás were able to string enough points together to earn an 8-7 (7-3) win to give the Runnin' Bulldogs the doubles point, a 1-0 lead entering singles play.
Dempsey (Dublin, Ireland) rolled into singles play, maintaining the momentum from a tough doubles win throughout his 6-2, 6-1 singles win at the No. 5 spot to put GWU up 2-0 overall in the match.
Zverkov (Moscow, Russia) also picked up his second win of the day in singles play, taking a 6-4, 6-4 triumph over Charlotte's Alex Weber at No. 6 singles. With the win, the reigning Big South freshman of the week improved to 3-0 in singles play this season.
The clinching point in the match came at No. 4 singles, where Alberch (Torello, Spain) pulled away from Kwasniewicz for a 6-2, 6-3 win to seal the Runnin' Bulldogs' overall victory over the 49ers.
After Charlotte got wins from Massallé Ferrer and Cisti at No.'s 1 and 2 singles respectively, senior Roman Piftor (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) tacked on a 6-3, 6-3 win at the No. 3 slot, his fourth straight singles win, to round out Wednesday's scoring and provide the final margin.
"This was a very tough match and one where we showed heart to come back at #3 doubles after droping a lead early," said head coach Mike Griffith. "Charlotte is a very tough matchup and one that will really help us down the road.
"This team is very hungry and we will go back to work tomorrow and try to improve."
During its recent four game win streak, the Runnin' Bulldogs have gotten help from across the board. Dempsey has won three straight singles matches and is 5-1 overall in singles this season, Alberch has won three straight and has four singles wins overall, and Piftor has wins in four straight outings for GWU. The doubles tandem of Alberch/Zverkov is 4-0 this season, all at the No. 2 position, and Dempsey/Kaszás is 3-0 playing at the No. 3 doubles spot thus far.
Gardner-Webb carries its four match win streak into its 2013 Big South opener when the Runnin' Bulldogs take on Coastal Carolina on the road. Saturday's match in Conway, S.C. is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m.
| Results: GWU 5, Charlotte 2 |
