Charleston, W.Va.-- West Virginia Wesleyan used a sweep of the doubles to take a commanding lead on the way to a 5-0 victory over Shepherd University in the Semifinals of the MEC tournament.
#2 Wesleyan (14-4, 7-1 MEC) will now face the winner of top-seeded Charleston and #4 Concord in Sunday's championship match at the Shonebaum Tennis courts in the Kanawha City Sportsplex. The match time is set for 1pm EST, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-70's forecast.
All-MEC selection Jacobo Rendon collected two wins Saturday, first pairing with Nathan Savill to capture the Bobcats initial point of the day with an 8-5 win at #3 doubles over Al Starlings and Steven Lesko. Rendon added a 61 60 singles win at #4 over the Ram's Steve Kolumban, while Savill ended the match by turning back Lesko at #5 by the scores of 6-3 6-0. The remaining matches were stopped in progress, with the Bobcats up a set in each.
The two teams had played a four hour duel just two weeks prior, with six of the nine being tightly contested, but the Bobcats took the drama out of the result in quick fashion after wins on all three doubles courts.
"We had a pretty good day," said head coach Marc Walters, whose team lost in the semifinals last season in their previous conference run. "Each court had a little run of nerves, but they shook them off quickly and put the pressure back on their opponents. We consider our doubles to be a strength, and today it was key."
Joel Izquierdo and
Aitor Reparaz, both All-MEC first team picks, continued their run at #1 doubles by taking an 8-3 win over Michael Lesko and Kolumban. The duo, down 1-3 after an early break, ran off the final seven games to earn the 'Cats second point. When
Andre Fernandes and
Jose Titonel served out their 8-6 victory at #2 doubles over Chris Pratt and Grant Davis, the Bpbcats had the cushion they needed going into the singles.
Walters was especially happy for Fernandes, who only got the doubles assignment midway through this season after not making the lineup as a freshman or in the fall.
"Andre is a great kid, and he and Jose (partner Titonel) have just kept grinding along and working on their games on the fly. In the meantime they have put together a string of wins since mid-March that has been huge for our team's competitive edge."
Walters joked, "Andre makes that team click, and he deserves a ton of credit for his positive attitude while his coach wasn't playing him. He was nails today for us."
