BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Men's Tennis begins their quest for their first-ever Big South Tournament crown on Friday morning. The #1 Runnin' Bulldogs will face #4 Radford at 11:00 a.m. on April 21 at Mario Diehl Park in Charlotte in the semifinals of the event.
 
This marked the second time in school history that Gardner-Webb were at least co-champions of the regular season as well as the #1 seed. The league needed to use the fourth tiebreaker scenario to determine the seedings for the top three teams. They used aggregate score against each other with Gardner-Webb at 8-6 against Campbell/Presbyterian, Campbell at 7-7 and Presbyterian at 6-6.
 
The Runnin' Bulldogs have never advanced to the finals of the event but made back-to-back trips to the semifinals in 2019 and 2021. Last season, they were bounced by #6 N.C. A&T in the First Round.
 
During the regular season, the 'Dogs traveled to Virginia and squeezed out a 4-3 win over the Highlanders. GWU won the opening doubles point, but then fell on courts #1, 2 and 3 in straight sets to have the overall score flip to 3-1.
 
Sebastian Harris and Kim Niethammer each were able to grind out straight set wins as well to bring it even at 3-3. The match was decided by Numa Lemieux-Monette's victory on court #4 where he dropped the first set in a tiebreaker but responded with wins in the next two to claim the team's crucial victory.
 
Eduardo Dias and Chrisjan Van Wyk have been the top doubles pairing for the year as they have been on the #1 court and have posted a 15-4 overall record and rolled through conference play for a 4-1 mark. At one point, the pairing had won 12 consecutive heading into the latter part of the schedule. The duo were First Team All-Conference for the year.
 
Victor Putter and Lemieux-Monette were on court #2 for most of the season and went 10-6 together and a perfect 3-0 against league opponents earning Second Team All Conference. Cathal Butler and Harris linked up halfway through the year to round out the lineup and went 9-2 from court #3 and collected a 3-0 mark against Big South competition as well.
 
Dias played in the topflight for Gardner-Webb in every match and went 16-4, picking up his 50^th career victory along the way this year and another First Team All Conference award. He had the second most singles win on the team and was 3-2 against league competition. Dias won his first four, won eight in a row, then enters the tournament on another four-match streak.
 
Alex Lepine plays in the #2 flight for the 'Dogs and went 13-7 in the regular season and 2-3 in Big South play and went unbeaten in eight straight matches this year to be a Seoncd-Team All-Conference Player. Putter spent most of the year as the #3 player, but shifted down in the lineup late in the year as he went 5-10 there and 6-13 overall on the year.
 
Lemeiux-Monette ended the year as the player on the #3 court for Gardner-Webb and posted a 13-7 overall record. He was 3-2 against Big South opponents and started the year at #5 and then while at the #4 position, he was 9-4.
 
Niethammer had the most wins on the entire team as he finished with a 19-2 mark that included an 18-match winning streak that tied the longest in school history. He went undefeated against league opponents. Niethammer was one of only four players across the Big South to finish the year at 5-0 and was a Second Team All-Conference Player. He started the year at #6 going 11-1, then moved to #5 and went 7-0 and finished the year at #4 going 1-1.
 
Harris rounds out the lineup in singles play and has gone 12-8 and ended the regular season playing at the #6 court and went 8-1 there. He had the second-best mark on the team against Big South opponents at 4-1. Harris also picked up a pair of victories on courts 4 and 5 as well.
 
Radford has been led by Demis Taramonlis from the #1 court at 10-7 with Aditya Balsekar at #2 with a 10-3 mark. These were the only players from the Highlanders to finish with a winning record against Big South opponents. Taramonlis and Balsekar were both First Team All-Conference players from Radford
 
The Highlanders also had solid contributions from Konstantinos Raptis at #3 as he had nine wins on the year to be Second Team All-Conference player and Guilherme Severin with eight from court #4. The Highlanders shuffled their last two spots in the lineup with four different players. Robert Hagen and Filippo Marangoni were those primary starters.
 
Raptis and Taramonlis were the top doubles pair all year as they went 12-4 and played at the #1 court to round out the pairings to earn First Team All-Conference for doubles. On court #2 they looked to Balsekar and Severin for position #2 and Hagen and Charles Courteau for #3 with each getting six wins over the year.
 
In the other semifinal matchup, it features #2 Campbell playing #3 Presbyterian with a first serve scheduled for 2:00 p.m. The finals for the event will be contested on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. with a berth in the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships on the line.