CHARLESTON – With the Mountain East Conference championship on the line, it was a battle between the conference's two best teams.

West Liberty entered as the one seed and West Virginia Wesleyan as the second seed.

It was a rematch of a contest from March 22 at West Liberty that the Hilltoppers won by a 6-3 score.

This time, the match had to be moved indoors due to rainy weather into the Charleston Indoor Center.

Unfortunately for the Bobcats and head coach Marc Walters, they couldn't overcome West Liberty as they had to settle for runner-up honors after a 5-2 setback.

"West Liberty flat outplayed us at every spot they won, and while we battled extremely hard to stay in the match in the end they overpowered us," remarked Walters.

West Liberty got off to a strong start taking a 2-1 lead after doubles winning at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.

Wesleyan's No. 3 doubles team of Nathan Savill and Jacobo Rendon picked up the lone doubles win, beating Pablo Cimorra and Matt Tully, 8-6.

West Liberty won three of the four completed singles matches.

Getting the lone Bobcat win was No. 5 Aitor Reparaz over Tully, 6-0, 6-1.

"I think the doubles set the tone, and West Liberty just raised their games at almost every turn in the dual singles," remarked Marc Walters. "The level was very high in most all of the singles matches, and I thought the matchups were good for us. But we were a slight step behind them most of the day in singles and they closed it out like a championship team needs to do."

West Liberty improved to 19-2 on the season while Wesleyan dropped to 11-7.

Both teams will now wait to see where their post-season fate lands them.

"We will likely see them again in two weeks at the NCAA Regional, so we will be working at those areas we need to shore up in case we can earn another shot at them," concluded Walters.