Liberty University
William & Mary
Liberty Wins 6-1 Over William & Mary, Saturday in Lynchburg
2/16/2019 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
The Liberty Flames men's tennis squad won its second home match of the weekend at its second different venue, besting the William & Mary Tribe by a 6-1 score on Saturday at Boonsboro Country Club.
The Flames are now 3-5 on the year and have won two straight matches. William & Mary falls to 0-7 in 2019. Saturday's triumph was Liberty's first-ever victory over the Tribe in what was the eighth all-time meeting between the two schools.
The Flames prevailed in a tightly contested doubles session and won five singles matches in front of their home crowd.
Liberty 6, William & Mary 1
Singles Competition
1. #104 Nicaise Muamba (LIBERTYM) def. Brenden Volk (WM) 5-0, retired
2. Josh Wilson (LIBERTYM) def. Finbar Talcott (WM) 6-1, 6-0
3. Sebastian Quiros (WM) def. Eddie Gutierrez (LIBERTYM) 6-2, 6-4
4. Ian Sturgill (LIBERTYM) def. Oren Vasser (WM) 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 1-0 (10-8)
5. Chase Burton (LIBERTYM) def. Chen Ruo (WM) 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-6)
6. Steve Mundt (LIBERTYM) def. Daniel Pellerito (WM) 1-6, 1-0, retired
Doubles Competition
1. Nicaise Muamba/Chase Burton (LIBERTYM) def. #45 Tristan Bautil/Finbar Talcott (WM) 6-2
2. Brenden Volk/Chen Ruo (WM) def. Josh Wilson/Eddie Gutierrez (LIBERTYM) 6-4
3. Steve Mundt/Vince Salas (LIBERTYM) def. Oren Vasser/Daniel Pellerito (WM) 7-5
Liberty 2-5|William & Mary 0-7
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,2,3,6,4,5)
Official: Harrison/Harrison T-3:02
Thoughts From Head Coach Derek Schwandt
"We fought hard as a full team from start to finish. We are excited to build on this momentum heading into our match at Virginia Tech."
How It Happened
- The Flames slipped past the Tribe in the doubles session, winning on courts one and three. A dominant effort from sophomore Nicaise Muamba and junior Chase Burton got the doubles session started. The duo led throughout their match on the way to a 6-2 win over the No. 45 doubles team in the nation, the Tribe's Tristan Bautil and Finbar Talcott.
- Brenden Volk and Chen Ruo of William & Mary trailed 4-3 to Josh Wilson and Eddie Gutierrez of Liberty (No. 2 doubles) but won the final three games for a 6-4 decision.
- It came down to No. 3 doubles between the Flames' Steve Mundt and Vince Salas and Tribe's Oren Vasser and Daniel Pellerito. Mundt and Salas trailed 5-4 before rattling off the next three games. Facing a deuce point and leading 6-5, they won the point for a 7-5 victory and a 1-0 Liberty lead.
- The Flames claimed five of the six singles matches, with two of those matches decided by injury retirements from William & Mary players (No. 1 and No. 6 singles). Muamba, the 104th-ranked player in the country, defeated Volk (5-0, retired) to make it 2-0 Flames.
- Wilson turned in the most dominant performance in singles, needing only 13 total games to close out his No. 2 singles match (6-1, 6-0) against Talcott and bring the score to 3-0 in favor of the home team. The Reigate, United Kingdom, native now has a team-best .750 winning percentage (6-2 record) in spring singles bouts and is 3-1 at the No. 2 post.
- After sitting out doubles, William & Mary's No. 3 singles player, Sebastian Quiros, squared off with Gutierrez. Quiros scored the visitors' only point of the evening, a two-set win (6-2, 6-4).
- Leading 3-1, it was Mundt's victory over Pellerito by injury retirement (1-6, 1-0, retired) which gave Liberty its match-clinching fourth point.
- The final two matches (No. 4, No. 5 singles) came down to third set 10-point tiebreakers, both of which went the Flames' way. Leading 8-7 in his tiebreaker, Sturgill (No. 4 singles) prevailed 10-8 over Vasser to win a lengthy match (7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 1-0 (10-8)).
- Burton built up a 7-4 lead in his tiebreaker on court five on the way to a 10-6 win against Ruo. Burton's 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-6) decision gave Liberty's its second straight 6-1 victory.
Next Up
- The Flames will be back in action next Friday at Virginia Tech (6-2). Match time is set for 6 p.m. at the Burrows-Burleson Tennis Center in Blacksburg, Va.
- Liberty will be looking to make more program history. A win would be the Flames' first-ever triumph over the Hokies (two previous meetings).
