GWU Hands Winthrop First League Loss, Battles for Fourth Straight Win
April 05, 2014 | Men's Tennis
Boiling Springs, N.C. - Gardner-Webb captured two doubles wins to start the match up 1-0 and Jonathan Walker rattled off a dramatic comeback in the final match of the day at No. 6 singles to clinch a 4-3 win over the visiting Winthrop Eagles on Friday at the Webb Tennis Complex.
Walker (Elkin, N.C.) pulled off the clinching point at No. 6 singles versus Michael Chen with all other singles matches concluded and the team score knotted at 3-3. In the third and deciding set versus Chen, Walker found himself down 4-1 and within one point of facing a 5-1 deficit.
The sophomore rallied, winning five straight games to pull off a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win to clinch the match for the Runnin' Bulldogs.
The match's beginning was as exciting as its ending. The opening doubles point came down to the No. 1 position, where the duo of Ernest Alberch and Nikita Zverkov captured an 8-7 (3) win against Peter Nagovnak/Dylan Comerford. GWU's No. 3 doubles tandem, Walker/Brendan Dempsey, won 8-3 against Yuta Hirokawa/Michael Chen.
Needing three singles wins, Gardner-Webb (11-10, 3-3 Big South) got its first singles win from Alberch (Torello, Spain), won of two Runnin' Bulldogs to pick up both singles and doubles wins in the win over Winthrop (10-8, 3-1 Big South). The junior scored a 7-6 (3), 6-3 triumph against the Eagles' Tremayne Mitchell at No. 4 singles.
The Runnin' Bulldogs got a key win at the top of the singles lineup from sophomore Benjamin Kaszás (Budapest, Hungary), who outlasted Hirokawa at the No. 1 spot by a 6-4, 7-5 margin.
A win at the No. 5 singles position from Juan Pablo Boada got some momentum back on the Eagles side, and Steven Patrick (No. 2 singles) and Comerford (No. 3 singles) prevailed in tight matches to tie the score and set up the dramatic finish between Walker and Chen.
Friday marks Gardner-Webb's first win against Winthrop since it joined the Big South, dating back to the 2008-09 season.
The win also pushes Gardner-Webb to an even League record and above .500 overall, both firsts this season.
The Runnin' Bulldogs will look to push its winning streak to five matches at UNC Asheville on Thursday, April 10 at 2:00 p.m.
