ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Gardner-Webb men's tennis defeated Longwood University by a score of 4-1 this morning in their first round match of the 2015 Big South Men's Tennis Championship taking place at the Asheville Racquet Club in Asheville, N.C.

The Runnin' Bulldogs collected two doubles victories and three out of four wins in singles play to collect the match win over the Lancers. With the victory today Gardner-Webb advances to faceoff in a Quarterfinal match tomorrow against the championship No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina.

Gardner-Webb started the match off with two straight doubles wins to move into singles play. The All-Conference doubles team of Nikita Zverkov and Ernest Alberch collected yet another win at No. 1 doubles defeating Johnson/Elston by a score of 8-4. At No. 3 doubles Jonathan Walker and Paul Hogan clinched the doubles point defeating Ilchev/Sankar 8-7, allowing GWU to take the 1-0 match advantage.

Gardner-Webb took the momentum from doubles to press forward collecting the first win of singles play at the No. 5 slot as freshman Yaroslav Prostakov defeated Bharani Sankar in straight sets 6-1, 6-2.

Redshirt senior Korhan Ates was next to finish as he collected his victory with set scores of 6-4, 6-2 over Florian Uffer at No. 4 singles. With the match now at 3-0 in Gardner-Webb's favor Zverkov dropped his No. 1 singles match to Dan Elston 6-3, 6-3, moving the match to 3-1 overall.

With poise senior Brendan Dempsey playing at the No. 6 singles slot secured the match victory for Gardner-Webb as he defeated Rosen Ilchev in straight sets by the score of 6-4 in each set.

Gardner-Webb's Quarterfinal match tomorrow against Coastal Carolina is set to commence with doubles play at 9:00 am in Ashevile, N.C.