VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Nearly down to the brink and its last match late, Averett University men's tennis pulled the unthinkable and silenced the Virginia Wesleyan University crowd with a 4-3 win on Saturday afternoon.
Virginia Wesleyan (5-4, 0-2 ODAC) accomplished something not many teams have done versus Averett (2-4, 2-0 ODAC) this season, as the Marlins stole the doubles point first.
Singles play came around, and the two squads went into the remaining three with a 2-2 split. Virginia Wesleyan won at the first spot, before the Cougars'
Florian Bert and
Alex Rudy won at No. 3, and No. 2, respectively. The Marlins put the visitors a match away from the loss with wins at the fourth and fifth matches, and even had the upper hand in the sixth-positioned match.
Josh Buckland was 7-6 (4) up on Averett's
Sam Egui to start. Egui took the second, 6-4, placing this dual down to a last set. As theatrics predicted, Egui and Buckland battled to the last moments of the full third set, and a deciding tiebreak. Egui controlled it from its onset, and did not waver in a 7-2 final score in said tiebreak to send the Cougars home happy.
Like the women's tennis team, Averett next contests an afternoon home conference match tomorrow versus the University of Lynchburg at 1 p.m.
