Gardner-Webb Defeats Liberty, 5-2, for Big South Win on Sunday
March 31, 2014 | Men's Tennis
Lynchburg, Va. - Gardner-Webb's men's tennis teams picked up singles wins at four singles positions and seized the momentum of the match in doubles play en route to a 5-2 victory over Liberty in Big South action on Sunday.
Sunday's win marks the second a row for the Runnin' Bulldogs over the Flames, dating back to a singles-sweeping 6-1 win for Gardner-Webb in Boiling Springs last season. Gardner-Webb has won three of its past four against Liberty.
GWU (9-10, 1-3 Big South) won at No. 1 doubles first, as Nikita Zverkov and Ernest Alberch teamed up to hold off Jorge Azuero / Alejandro Llamas of Liberty (8-9, 1-3 Big South). The Flames won at No. 2 doubles, 8-4, thanks to Egon Samaai / Dillon Segur, who outlasted Gardner-Webb's Pepe Batalla / Benjamin Kaszás pairing.
The clinching match for the doubles point came down to the No. 3 spot, where Jonathan Walker and Brendan Dempsey won by an 8-7 margin over Shea Thomas / Stan Vaughan.
Thomas gave the home team momentum at No. 1 singles, defeating Kaszás (Budapest, Hungary) 6-0, 6-1 to even the scoring at 1-1 in the first singles match to finish.
Alberch (Torello, Spain) gave Gardner-Webb a boost with a win at No. 3 singles, snatching momentum right back thanks to a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Vaughan.
Gardner-Webb's third point came from Walker (Elkin, N.C.), whose 6-4, 6-2 No. 5 singles win over Llamas pulled the visitors within a point of clinching the match.
Dempsey (Dublin, Ireland) clinched with a win at No. 4 singles, weathering a fight from Jorge Azuero in the first set before pulling away by a 7-6, 6-1 margin.
At No. 2 singles, Zverkov (Moscow, Russia) rebounded to pick up a tough win against Samaii. The sophomore won the second and third sets of the No. 2 singles match to score a 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 win on Sunday.
Pepe Batalla (Barcelona, Spain) won the first set at No. 6 singles, but was unable to hold off Liberty's Dillon Segur, who won 4-6, 6-2, 10-5 in the final match to finish.
The Runnin' Bulldogs have won two in a row and five in its last seven matches dating back to late February.
Gardner-Webb turns around to play at Longwood on Monday (March 31) at 1:30 p.m.
