University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Gardner-Webb
Men's Tennis Wins Dog Fight Versus Gardner-Webb
04.09.2015 | Men's Tennis
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – The UNC Asheville men's tennis team wrapped up the 2015 regular season with a 4-3 victory over Gardner-Webb on Thursday afternoon at the Webb Tennis Complex.
With the win, Asheville improves to 11-7 overall and 3-5 in the Big South Conference. Gardner-Webb falls to 8-12 and 2-5 in the league.
The Bulldogs jumped out in front early, earning the doubles point with victories at No. 1 and No. 2. Alex Croker and Brett Landau were the first to finish, improving their season mark to 10-7 at the top flight with an 8-6 victory over Korhan Ates and Nikita Zverkov. Thomas Panoulus and John Schubel wrapped up the point with an 8-7 (5) triumph over Yaroslav Prostakov and Benjamin Kaszas on court two.
Each team won three matches in singles play, with the Blue & White earning the first result on court three. Josh Swindler defeated Brendan Dempsey, 6-4, 6-1, for his eighth win of the season, giving Asheville a 2-0 lead. Gardner-Webb closed the deficit to 2-1 following Ates' 6-1, 6-4 victory over Landau at No. 5, but the Bulldogs quickly extended the lead to 3-1, thanks to Kripak's 6-2, 7-5 victory at the top flight. Kripak has now won four straight matches to improve his record to 11-6.
GWU again closed the margin to one through Prostakov's 7-5, 6-2 over Croker at the fifth flight. Panoulus closed things out for the Bulldogs at No. 2 grabbing a three-set (6-3, 3-6, 6-1) victory over Kaszas to even his singles record at 8-8 overall. The final match to finish went in favor of the Runnin' Bulldogs, where Jonathan Walker defeated Schubel 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.
Head coach Tom Hand's team will now have over a week off before returning to action in their first match of the Big South Tennis Championships in Asheville.
