CHARLESTON, W.Va.--The WV Wesleyan men's tennis team got off to a 2-1 lead after doubles, but couldn't sustain their momentum,falling 6-3 to Univerisity of Charleston Sunday evening at the YMCA Indoor Center.
The loss was the second straight for Wesleyan, who watched as UC closed out three 3-set wins to take the match.
UC maintains an umblemished mark in the WVIAC to stay in a first place tie with Bluefield State, while the Bobcats drop to 2-2 in the conference and 5-4 overall.
Eduards Gusevs (SR--Latvia) won both of his matches on the day, teaming with
Javier Yim Kim (SR-Paraguay) for a dominating 8-1 win at #2 doubles over Matt Shreba and Rico Williams, before defeating Dennis Okoth 6-3 6-3 at #4 singles.
However, that would be it for the Bobcats, as UC claimed 3 set wins at #1, #3 and #5 singles as well as taking a tiebreaker first set at #6 in a staright set victory.
"It was all about the fight today for UC in singles," noted Head coach
Marc Walters. "We gave pretty good efforts in doubles and at a couple of singles spots, but our conditioning and compeitive drive sputtered when we needed to have it. We have alot of work to do if we want to be relevent in April when WVIAC and Regionals come around."
Walters thought Gusevs and sophomore Douglas Oliviero were bright spots in the match for Wesleyan.
"Eds was his usual battle tested self, and Douglas really did a great job of working himself into his match mentally and physically after a shaky start. He also stepped up in doubles to take that match over after we got off to a slow start. "Those two kept us hanging around for a couple hours before UC closed us out."
