Men's Tennis Readies For Big South Tournament
April 11, 2016 | Men's Tennis
CHARLOTTE, N.C.- The Gardner-Webb men's tennis team earned the no. 4 seed in the 2016 Big South Conference Men's Tennis Championships, that is set to get underway Wednesday, at the Hershey-Esbenshade Tennis Courts on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
Gardner-Webb will face the no. 5 seed Liberty Thursday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. The no. 4 seed for GWU is the highest seed since the 2010-11 season, when the Runnin' Bulldogs also earned the fourth seed, finishing the season with a 3-4 mark in Big South play.
The Runnin' Bulldogs finished the season with a 10-11 overall record and a 4-4 mark in conference play, tying them with defending champion Winthrop as well as Liberty. Gardner-Webb earned the tie-breaker over the Eagles and the Flames, as they defeated both teams during the regular season.
Coastal Carolina earned the top seed in the conference tournament, posting a perfect 8-0 record to earn their second consecutive regular-season title.
Freshman Maximilian Scholl leads the Runnin' Bulldogs with a 14-7 mark in singles place, including an impressive 7-1 mark in conference, as well as a 14-7 record in doubles match, and a 6-2 record against Big South schools.
Scholl is second in the conference with a 14-6 mark at no. 1 singles, trailing Liberty's Sam Matheson, who's lone loss came at the hands of Scholl, who record a 7-5, 6-1 straight-set victory over the LU junior.
Jonathan Walker has also put together a great year for GWU, as he ranks second in the conference with a 9-4 record at no. 6 singles, trailing Luiz Faria (8-1). Walker gave Faria his only loss, recording a three set victory, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 on senior day against the Chanticleers.
In doubles action, the pairing of Nikita Zverkov and Scholl rank second in the Big South with a 9-3 record, but own a victory over leaders Pedro Leme and Vuk Velickovic, who the GWU pairing beat 7-5 in the matchup earlier this season.
The winner of Thursday's match between GWU and Winthrop, will play the winner of Coastal Carolina and either Radford or Longwood, who face each other in Wednesday's first round match.
Wednesday, April 13 – First Round
Match 1: No. 8 Radford vs. No. 9 Longwood, 1:00pm
Thursday, April 14 – Quarterfinals
Match 2: No. 1 Coastal Carolina vs. No. 8/9 winner, 11:00am
Match 3: No. 4 Gardner-Webb vs. No. 5 Liberty, 2:00pm
Match 4: No. 2 Presbyterian vs. No. 7 Campbell, 11:00am
Match 5: No. 3 UNC Asheville vs. No. 6 Winthrop, 2:00pm
Friday, April 15 – Semifinals
Match 6: Match 2 winner vs. Match 3 winner, 11:00am
Match 7: Match 4 winner vs. Match 5 winner, 2:00pm
Saturday, April 16 – Championship
Match 8: Match 6 winner vs. Match 7 winner, 3:00pm
