STATESBORO, GA. – The Gardner-Webb men's tennis team saw its season-opening, eight-game winning streak come to an end as host Georgia Southern handed the Runnin' Bulldogs their first loss of the season with a 4-0 victory on Sunday at the Wallis Tennis Center.

Gardner-Webb, which fell to 8-1 overall, lost for the seventh-straight time to Georgia Southern dating back to 2016. The Eagles moved to 3-6 on the season with the victory.

The doubles point was a tight affair as it came down to No. 2 doubles to decide the outcome.

The 'Dawgs Eduardo Dias (Parana, Brazil) and Chrisjan Van Wyk (Pretoria, South Africa) fell, 6-3, to Judson Blair and Pierre Mouesca at No.1 doubles while Cathal Butler and Alex Lepine prevailed 6-3 at No.3 doubles for the Runnin' Bulldogs.

The Eagles earned the doubles point as Pol del Castillo and Dimitris Paliouras earned a 7-6 (2) win over Numa Lemieux-Monette and Jurie Terblanche.

In singles play, Georgia Southern took five of the first six sets. Pol del Castillo won the first singles match with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Lemieux-Monette at No. 3 singles.
Matthew Mitchell had a 6-2, 6-3 win over Terblanche at No. 6 singles and Laurent Julia Calac clinched the match for Georgia Southern with a 6-2, 7-6 (3) win over Johan Van Wijk at No. 5 singles.

The other three singles matches - Dias at No.1, Lepine at No.2 and Kim Niethammer at No.4, were not completed once Georgia Southern clinched the match.

"Credit Georgia Southern for winning at the doubles point and then keeping us down in singles (matches)," said Gardner-Webb men's head tennis coach Mike Griffith. "Losing the tiebreaker at No.2 doubles really hurt and we could not change the momentum the rest of the afternoon. We will get better for next weekend."

UP NEXT: - Gardner -Webb will visit Elon on Thursday afternoon (2/22) for a 2PM match at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center. The 'Dawgs will then travel to Buies Creek to face former Big South opponent Campbell on Saturday (2/24).  Matches at the Nesbit Tennis Center get underway at 11AM.