Spartanburg, S.C. - The Runnin' Bulldogs won 5 of 6 singles matches as Gardner-Webb's men's tennis team won its second straight match in winning at Wofford, 6-1, in non-conference play on Thursday.
GWU (2-3) grabbed its first road win of the 2013 season thanks to a great start during doubles, getting wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles positions to secure the doubles point for the second straight match.
After Wofford (2-4) won at the No. 1 doubles spot, GWU's Benjamin Kaszás and Brendan Dempsey teamed up to outlast the Terriers' Sklar/Wood tandem, winning an 8-5 match at No. 3.
The doubles point came down to the match at the No. 2 slot, where Nikita Zverkov and Ernest Alberch fought off Wofford's Thompson/Duncan pairing to earn an 8-7 win and get the Runnin' Bulldogs on the board early.
A quick win from Dempsey (Dublin, Ireland) at No. 5 singles increased GWU's lead, as the sophomore handled a 6-2, 6-2 match against Parks Thompson.
A Wofford win at No. 1 singles cut Gardner-Webb's lead in half. The Terriers would get no closer though, as the Runnin' Bulldogs swept the remaining four singles matches. Alberch, a sophomore from Torello, Spain, cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Wofford's Graham Duncan at No. 4 singles.
Senior Roman Piftor (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) picked up the clinching win for the second consecutive week, taking a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over Walker Heffron at the No. 3 spot.
A pair of freshmen won the remaining two matches, at No.'s 6 and 2 singles respectively, to round out the scoring. Zverkov (Moscow, Russia) outlasted David Sklar at the No. 6 position 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, and Kaszás (Budapest, Hungary) won his match at No. 2 singles, battling to hold off Wofford's Drew Superstein by a 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 margin.
The win marks the second consecutive for Gardner-Webb over Wofford, dating back to last season's 5-2 GWU win in Boiling Springs.
Gardner-Webb turns around for a home match tomorrow, Friday, February 15, at 2:30 p.m., as the Runnin' Bulldogs look to make it three in a row against Brevard.
