ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Gardner-Webb fought hard this morning in a very back and forth contest–losing 4-2, to the championship No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina in the Quarterfinal round of the 2015 Big South Men's Tennis Championship played at the Asheville Racquet Club in Asheville, N.C.
To start the Quarterfinal match off the Gardner-Webb doubles team of Nikita Zverkov and Ernest Alberch picked up yet another win on an impressive year for the pair as they two defeated the top doubles team in the conference of Tasangarides/Pereira 8-4 at No. 1 doubles.
However, Coastal Carolina would then collect 8-6 wins at the No. 3 and No. 2 doubles positions to claim the doubles point. Jonathan Walker and Paul Hogan fell to Velickovic/Yedigarian at No. 3 doubles, while Korhan Ates and Yaroslav Prostakov dropped their No. 2 match.
Moving to singles play the Gardner-Webb freshman Prostakov continued his strong play at No. 5 singles defeating Jabor Al-Mutawa in straight sets 6-0, 6-1, to even the overall match score at 1-1.
Stalwart senior Brendan Dempsey playing at the No. 6 singles slot was the next to collect a victory for Gardner-Webb over Coastal Carolina's Renan Samed 6-2, 6-4, giving GWU the 2-1 match lead.
Coastal Carolina would respond quickly winning at No. 1 singles and No. 3 singles to bounce back and take the 3-2-match lead. At No. 1 singles Philippe Tasangarides claimed the win over Zverkov 6-4, 6-4, with his doubles mate Alberch losing 6-3, 6-4 in his No. 3 singles match falling to Vuk Velickovic.
With two singles matches yet to finish Coastal Carolina only needed to pick up one win to clinch the Quaterfinal victory. The win for Coastal would come at the No. 2 singles flight as Kaue Pereira defeated junior Benjamin Kaszas to complete the victory for the Chanticleers. Pereira took the first set 6-3, while Kaszas battled back in the second set to win 6-2 before falling 7-5 to Pereira in the third.
The one match the would go unfinished this morning was the No. 4 singles match between redshirt senior Ates and Garik Yedigarian. Ates won the first set 6-2, lost the second narrowly 7-5 and was trailing to Yedigarian 3-2 when the match was called.
