CHARLOTTE – Presbyterian defeated Gardner-Webb 4-1 in the Big South Men's Tennis Championships on Sunday afternoon to conclude the Runnin' Bulldogs season. GWU finishes as runners-up in the event, their best finish in school history after making the finals for the first time ever.
"We played a great match today," said Head Coach
Mike Griffith. "We got ahead early with the doubles point, but Presbyterian played really tough in singles and were able to get the win today."
The Runnin' Bulldogs opened the day with a tough win in the topflight 6-2 by
Eduardo Dias and
Chrisjan Van Wyk. The match included back-and-forth battles for every point. Gardner-Webb clinched the doubles point with
Sebastian Harris and
Cathal Butler on court #3 by a fiery 6-3 scoreline. This left the match at position #2 unfinished with PC leading it 5-2.
Presbyterian got out to an early advantage by winning the first set of four of the courts. GWU got their wins on courts #1 and #6 with Dias recovering from a 5-2 deficit to win the first in a tiebreaker by a 7-6 (2) scoreline.
The Blue Hose then got on the board themselves with a 6-1, 6-3 victory from court #3 followed by a 6-2, 6-1 win on court #5. This brought them up 2-1 with four matches still yet to be decided. They got another straight set decision from court #4 to bring the score to 3-1.
Three matches were sent to a third set, with
Alex Lepine winning in a tiebreaker to force his into a third from court #2. The Big South Player of the Year, Dusan Milanovic provided the match-clincher storming back to win in the second and third sets. The matches on courts #2 and #6 went unfinished.
Griffith said, "I'm incredibly proud of the guys and the fight that they showed to keep it alive and still put us at a chance to win it today. We know we can do this again and can't wait to play for shot at the Big South Title again next season"
Gardner-Webb finishes the year at 16-7, setting a single-season record for wins in a season as they clinched their second Big South Regular Season Title in school history.
