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Liberty University
East Carolina
Flames Sail Past Pirates on Sunday
3/20/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
The Liberty Flames tennis squad earned a convincing 4-2 victory over East Carolina on Sunday afternoon at the Sports Racket, its first-ever victory over the Pirates.
With the win, the Flames improved to .500 on the season with a 7-7 record. Today's match was Liberty's first contest since March 10. ECU falls to 8-7 on the season following the loss.
Sam Matheson and Egon Samaai began doubles play with a key 6-4 victory over Tendai Tapfuma and James Ling from the No. 1 doubles position.
After ECU claimed the win at the No. 2 doubles slot, Eddie Gutierrez and Alex Poynter clinched the doubles point for the Flames with the freshmen duo besting Ronny Georgi and Kasey Countee by the score of 6-4, giving Liberty the early 1-0 advantage.
Fredric Lehfeldt evened the match at one apiece after he defeated Diego Castano in straight sets from the No. 5 singles position, 6-2, 6-4.
Following Lehfeldt's victory, Gutierrez notched a straight-set victory of his own at No. 4 single to place the Flames back on top 2-1, a lead they would not relinquish. The Mexico native defeated Georgi, 6-2, 6-1, notching his seventh singles victory of the season.
Liberty saw its lead grow to two after Matheson collected his 12th victory of the spring season, improving to 12-0 on the year. The New Zealand native relinquished a 5-2 lead in the first set but withstood Tapfuma's rally to win the first frame in a tiebreaker 7-6(1). With the momentum back in the favor of the Liberty junior, Matheson cruised to a 6-1 victory in the second set to win from the No. 1 singles position and extend the Flames' overall lead to 3-1.
Countee cut the deficit in half for the Pirates, notching a 6-3, 7-6(5) victory over Poynter from the No. 2 singles slot.
The match was clinched in favor of Liberty when Samaai rallied to win a three-set match from the No. 3 singles position. Samaai dropped the first set to Vlad Anghel, 6-1. The South African native then rebounded to win the second set 6-3 to even the set scores at one apiece. Samaai and Anghel battled toe-to-toe through the first five games of the third set with Samaai taking a 3-2 advantage. The Liberty senior was able to separate himself from Anghel by taking the next game and then used the momentum to win the final two frames to claim the set 6-2, clinching the overall match for the red and blue.
David Bush was ahead of Will Bissett in the No. 6 singles position by the score of 2-1 in the first set. The match was called following Liberty's match-clinching victory by Samaai.
"Today was a real quality win," stated head coach Chris Johnson. "The guys put a lot together today and executed well under pressure. That's a great sign moving into conference matches the rest of the week."
The Flames return to action on Tuesday when they host Winthrop at 2 p.m. at the Cook Tennis Center. Liberty will then take on Presbyterian in Clinton, S.C., on Thursday at 1 p.m.
Liberty 4, East Carolina 2
Doubles
- Matheson/Samaai (LU) def. Tapfuma/Ling (ECU), 6-4
- Lehfeldt/Anghel (ECU) def. Castano/Bush (LU), 6-3
- Gutierrez/Poynter (LU) def. Georgi/Countee (ECU), 6-4
Singles
- Matheson (LU) def. Tapfuma (ECU), 7-6(7-1), 6-1
- Countee (ECU) def. Poynter (LU), 6-3, 7-6(7-5)
- Samaai (LU) def. Anghel (ECU), 1-6, 6-3, 6-2
- Gutierrez (LU) def. Georgi (ECU), 6-2, 6-1
- Lehfeldt (ECU) def. Castano (LU), 6-2, 6-4
- Bush (LU) def. Bissett (ECU), 2-1, unfinished
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2,3
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
5,4,1,2,3