CHARLESTON -- Jacobo Rendon (pictured) tallied two big points and conference of the Year Joel Izquierdo captured the clinching singles win as West Virginia Wesleyan defeated the University of Charleston by a score of 5-3 here Saturday afternoon in the semifinals of the Mountain East Men's Tennis Championships.
The Bobcats move into Sunday's championship to face No. 1 seed and regular-season champion West Liberty at 1 p.m. at Shoenbaum Courts in Charleston.
Play will move indoors to the Charleston Tennis Club in the event of rain, which is in the forecast for Sunday. All match times will remain the same if the match moves indoors.
After the 'Cats dropped two of the three doubles matches to fall behind early, Wesleyan quickly rallied to lead the match 3-2 behind dominating wins No. 4 and No. 5 singles where Ramon Rodriguez and Aitor Reparaz lost only one game between them. Charleston quickly countered with a straight-set win at the No. 3 spot, setting up the final three positions to decide the winner.
The Bobcats won the first set in all three of the remaining matches, but Charleston came back to split at numbers 1 and 2, where Rendon and Izquierdo were battling against UC's Alec Foote and James Gammell. Tim Stephens was toiling at No. 6 against Jamie Gibson in a back and forth contest, and Stephens was deep in the second set when Rendon and Izquierdo closed out their opponents and pushed the Bobcats into Sunday's final.
"We played a smart match today and despite falling behind we stayed focused and were able to put ourselves in a position to win," said Wesleyan coach Marc Walters, who saw his team raise their record to 11-6 overall and 7-1 in MEC play.
"Joel, Tim, and Jacobo all showed why they deserved their all-conference status. They had to manage their way through tough opponents on the road in a pressure situation, and they answered the bell again."
The match had regional NCAA ramifications as well, as Wesleyan entered the match ranked above Charleston and kept the Bobcats in contention to qualify for the NCAA regional tournament.
A loss would have put them on the bubble, and they would have had to watch the scoreboard to see what their fate would be. Now the 'Cats can focus on winning a second straight MEC tournament.
