BOILING SPRINGS N.C.- Gardner-Webb men's tennis won at four singles positions and captured the doubles point with sound play all around claiming a 5-2 victory of the Liberty Flames in Big South action this afternoon at the Webb Tennis Complex.
This afternoon's win marks the third victory in a row for the Runnin' Bulldogs over the Flames of Liberty in the last three years and improves the GWU record to 8-9 overall with a 2-3 record in Conference play.
Gardner-Webb started the match strong with Benjamin Kaszas and Yaroslav Prostakov winning at No. 3 doubles over Castano/Bush 8-4, while Ernest Alberch and Nikita Zverkov would clinch the doubles point, also with an 8-4 win, defeating Matheson/Azuero at the No. 1 doubles slot.
At No. 2 doubles Brendan Dempsey and Korhan Ates teamed up for the first time this season and played a tough hard fought match against Samaai/Segur falling 8-7(3), to the Liberty team in the tiebreak.
In singles play GWU got off to a bit of a sluggish with Kaszas losing at No. 1 singles 6-3, 6-4, to Sam Matheson and Zverkov falling 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 against Dillon Segur at No. 2 singles. With the match at 2-1 in favor of the away side Gardner-Webb played good tennis down the line sweeping the four remaining singles matches.
One of three seniors to win today for Gardner-Webb in singles play was Brendan Dempsey who defeated Diego Castano in a physical 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 three-set win at No. 5 singles. Red-shirt senior Korhan Ates playing at No. 4 singles handled his match very well claiming a 6-4, 7-6(6) victory over Egon Samaai.
Senior Ernest Alberch would clinch the match for the Runnin' Bulldogs this afternoon with a timely comeback three-set win over Jorge Azuero at No. 3 singles. Alberch dropped the first set in a tiebreak 6-7(3), and then claimed 6-0 and 7-5 set scores to come from behind for the victory.
Junior Jonathan Walker would round out singles play today adding on the fourth singles victory for Gardner-Webb defeating Jason Burgess 7-6(6), 6-4 to earn his second single win in a row and third singles win on the season.
The Runnin' Bulldogs will look to continue to build off their last two match wins as they host Presbyterian College in Big South tennis action this coming Tuesday, March 31 at 3:00 p.m.
