Men's Tennis Captures Doubles Flight Title At Winthrop Fall Invitational
November 02, 2015 | Men's Tennis
ROCK HILL, S.C.- Nikita Zverkov teamed up with Winthrop's Aditya Gokhale to capture the Gold Doubes Flight, while freshman Maximillian Scholl advanced to Sunday morning's finals of the Winthrop Singles Flight to highlight the Gardner-Webb men's tennis team's performance at the 2015 Winthrop Fall Invitational.
In total, the Runnin' Bulldogs had five of their players win at least two singles matches, while the doubles pairing of Scholl and Kaszas were seeded first in the Garnet Doubles Flight.
Zverkov and Gokale were seeded sixth in their doubles flight and upset Adam Howard and Evan Watkins (Davidson) in their opening round match, 8-3. The doubles pairing defeated Markel Aranberri and Lochlan Kitchen (Bluefield College) 8-2, to advance into the semifinal match. The semifinals match saw Zverkov and Gokhale defeat Diego Quiroz and Joshua Ryan (Winthrop) 8-7, and the GWU and Winthrop combination pairing completed their title run with an 8-7 victory over Alex Crocker and Olly Cull (UNC Asheville).
Competing in just his fifth tournament as a collegiate tennis player, Scholl had an extremely impressive performance in the three-day event. Scholl defeated Florian Uffer (Longwood), 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 in the opening round match and took down Josh Pistorious (Furman) in three sets 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to move into the semifinals of the Winthrop singles draw. The Gardner-Webb freshman moved on to the finals with a 6-4, 6-4 straight-set victory over Artem Khrapko (Davidson), but due to an unfavorable forecast, Sunday's final had to be moved indoors. Scholl's run would ultimately come to an end, losing in the finals 6-1,7-5 to Scott Webster (Appalachian State).
Zverkov was entered into the same flight as Scholl and after dropping his opening round match to Quiroz, rebounded to defeat Luke Hoover (Furman) 6-3, 6-3 to move into the semifinals of the consolation bracket. However, Zverkov would come up just short, losing to Alfonso Castellano (Longwood).
Benjamin Kaszas and Jonathan Walker were both entered into the Eagle Singles flight for the Runnin' Bulldogs. Kaszas advanced into the championship portion of the bracket recording a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Lachlan Manser (Longwood), while Walker dropped his match in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2 to Rick Saad (Davidson). Kaszas would come up short in his next match, losing 7-6, 6-4 to Michael Chen (Winthrop), but rebounded to win his final match of the day, 7-6, 6-1 over Zach Bost (Appalachian State).
Paul Hogann was victotorious in his opening round match, losing just one game in a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Rosen Ilchev (Longwood), but was defeated in the next match by JW Kleynhans (Appalachian State), 6-1, 6-1. The Gardner-Webb redshirt freshman came back on Sunday and dropped the opening set to JD O' Brien (Winthrop), but finished the match winning 6-7, and 10-4 in the final two sets.
This was the final event of the fall portion of the 2015-16 season for the Runnin' Bulldogs. Gardner-Webb will return to competitive action on Jan. 17, 2016 when they host Georgia Southern at 1:00 p.m.
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