Men's Tennis | 4/14/2017 10:07:00 AM
BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – The West Liberty University men's tennis team had its 8-match winning streak snapped here Thursday afternoon when West Virginia Wesleyan pulled out a narrow 5-4 decision in a battle between two of the top teams in the Mountain East Conference and the Atlantic Region.
The Bobcats (9-6, 3-1) came into the match ranked No. 4 in the region while
Sam McCullough's two-time defending MEC champion Hilltoppers (11-5, 5-1) were No. 2 in this week's rankings.
The short-handed West Liberty squad, still playing without injured All-MEC standout Andy Ponder, got off to a strong start by taking two of the three doubles matches.
After a split at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles,
Pablo Cimorra and
Camilo Moncayo came up with a big win for the Black and Gold at No. 3 doubles when they outlasted the Wesleyan (9-6, 3-1) tandem of Jacobo Rendon and Alex Lyudinovskiy by a 9-7 count to give WLU a 2-1 lead heading into singles play.
Baptiste Perrin and
Santiago Gutierrez rolled to a pair of straight-set wins at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, to put the Hilltoppers one victory away from clinching the match but that decisive win never came.
The Bobcats battled back with straight-set decisions of their own at Nos. 3, 4 and 5 singles to forge a 4-4 tie. Meanwhile, Cimorra and the hosts' Ferran Berga were locked in a three-set thriller at No. 6 singles which would ultimately decide the match.
Berga claimed a 6-4 win in the opening set but Cimorra answered with a 6-4 win of his own in the second set to square the match. The third set swung back and forth before Berga took advantage of a service break to post a 6-4 win.
Thursday's result effectively created a four-way tie for first place in the MEC standings heading into the final weekend of the regular season as West Liberty, Wesleyan, Fairmont State and Shepherd are all sitting with just one loss.
The Hilltoppers close out their MEC slate at Shepherd on Friday. Wesleyan still has matches remaining with Charleston, UVa-Wise and Shepherd while Fairmont visits Shepherd on Saturday.
The MEC Tournament is scheduled for April 21-23 in Huntington, W.Va.
MEN'S TENNIS
W.Va. Wesleyan 5, West Liberty 4
Singles
Baptiste Perrin (WLU) d. Nathan Sabate, 6-0 6-3
Santiago Gutierrez (WLU) d. Lukas Laipold, 6-3 6-3
Ramon Rodriguez (WVW) d.
Matt Tully, 6-3 6-2
Alex Lyudinovskiy (WVW) d.
Camilo Moncayo, 7-6 (8) 6-4
Jacobo Rendon (WVW) d.
Luke Flanagan, 6-0 6-0
Ferran Berga (WVW) d.
Pablo Cimorra, 6-4 4-6 6-4
Doubles
Perrin/Gutierrez (WLU) d. Sabate/Berga, 8-5
Laipold/Rodriguez (WVW) d. Tully/Flanagan, 8-2
Cimorra/Moncayo (WLU) d. Rendon/Lyudinovskiy, 9-7
