CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Liberty University men's tennis team dropped a 4-1 decision to nationally-ranked Charleston here Sunday in the Mountain East Conference Tournament championship match at the Charleston Tennis Club.
    Coach Ron Hulewicz's Hilltoppers came up just short in a pitched battle for the doubles point at the start of the match and couldn't climb back out of the early hole against the No. 19-ranked Golden Eagles.
    Charleston took a 6-2 win at No. 1 doubles but Moritz Erpel and Gianluca Gerndt evened matters for the Black and Gold with a 6-3 victory at No. 3 doubles. That meant the doubles point would go to the winner of the No. 2 doubles set and that turned into a marathon.
    The Hilltopper duo of Isfan Makhmudov and Daisuke Aota battled the UC pairing of Daniel Llorente and Krish Patel to a 6-6 draw, forcing the decision to a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker session was just as close as the set itself but the Golden Eagles pulled out an 8-6 nod to claim the doubles point.
    Patel gave Charleston a quick 2-0 lead with a straight-set win at No. 3 singles but WLU answered with a 6-0 6-3 win by Nevio Dux at No. 6 singles, cutting the margin to 2-1.
    That was as close as the Black and Gold could come, however, as the Golden Eagles pulled out wins at No. 2 and No. 5 singles to wrap up the match.
    Charleston, ranked No. 1 in the region, earned the MEC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional later this month while the Hilltoppers remain in contention for an at-large bids. The complete NCAA Division II Tournament field will be announced later this week.
  Dagostine/Giesberts (UC) def. Dux/Schulz (WLU) 6-2
Llorente/Patel (UC) def. Aota/Makhmudov (WLU) 7-6 (6)
Erpel/Gerndt (WLU) def. Stevens/Rawson (UC) 6-3 Daniel Llorente (UC) vs. Moritz Erpel (WLU) 7-5, 3-0 (DNF)
John Giesberts (UC) def. Anton Schulz (WLU) 6-4, 6-2
Krish Patel (UC) def. Gianluca Gerndt (WLU) 6-2, 6-0
Marshall Dagostine (UC) vs. Isfan Makhmudov (WLU) 1-6, 6-1, 1-0 (DNF)
Jowan Rawson (UC) def. Daisuke Aota (WLU) 6-2, 6-3
Nevio Dux (WLU) def. Jake Magill (UC) 6-0, 6-3