Men's Tennis Falls on Senior Day, 5-2, to Presbyterian
March 31, 2015 | Men's Tennis
BOILING SPRINGS N.C.- Gardner-Webb men's tennis fought hard this afternoon but were defeated by Presbyterian College by a score of 5-2, in Big South Conference action at the Webb Tennis Complex.
With the defeat the Runnin' Bulldogs move to 8-10 on the 2015 season and 2-4 in Conference play, while the Blue Hose improved to 15-7 overall and picked up their second Conference win in five matches played (2-3).
Presbyterian started the match off by claiming the doubles point with wins at No. 3 and No. 2 doubles. The Gardner-Webb team of Kaszas/Prostakov were the first to fall 8-1 at No. 3 doubles losing to the team of Bruce/Manzanas, while Garnder-Webb gained a match as Zverkov/Alberch defeated Lykou/Mills 8-4 at No. 1 doubles.
The all-senior Gardner-Webb team of Ates/Dempsey would be the deciding factor for doubles point. They two seniors would fall to Kelley/Roberts from PC 8-5 claiming the doubles point for PC.
Moving into singles play Presbyterian would collect the first win of the match as senior Ernest Alberch fell to Diego Manzanas 6-4, 6-4, at No. 3 singles. Fellow senior Brendan Dempsey collected the first GWU win of the day by defeating Brandon Mills at No. 5 singles 7-6(2), 6-2.
Presbyterian would take three more singles matches on the afternoon claiming the overall win, 5-2. Freshman Yaroslav Prostakov was defeated 6-4, 6-3, by Ben Kelley at No. 6 singles.
The No. 1 singles player junior Benjamin Kaszas lost in a tough three-set match 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, to Alexander Lykou, while red-shirt senior Korhan Ates playing at No. 4 singles also fell in three-sets to Alejandro Bejar 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Junior Nikita Zverkov would pick up the second win for Gardner-Webb in today's match at No. 2 singles coming from behind losing the first set 6-1, before fighting back to defeat Joel Roberts 6-4, 7-6(4), in the next two sets.
Prior to the match Gardner-Webb men's tennis honored the three seniors apart of the Class of 2015. Alberch, Ates and Dempsey have all contributed greatly to the Gardner-Webb men's tennis program. Head Coach Mike Griffith had this to say about his three seniors
"These three guys love being apart of this program and playing for this school. They all are going to be truly missed. However, we are not done yet. We still have a lot of goals that we are striving to reach by the end of this season. We did not get the job done today but we are going to practice hard and hit the ground running in our next match."
The Runnin' Bulldogs next match will be away Wednesday, April 8 at non-conference opponent Appalachian State's. The match is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. in Boone, N.C.
