CONWAY, S.C. – Longwood men's tennis sophomore Alfonso Castellano picked up his first win of the spring in the final match of the day, but the Lancers could not overcome a deficit in a 6-1 loss to Big South Conference preseason favorite Coastal Carolina Saturday at the Coastal Carolina Tennis Complex.

Castellano defeated Vuk Velickovic 6-4, 7-5, at the No. 1 position to help the Lancers avoid being swept for the third straight season by the Chanticleers. In the first conference match for both teams, Coastal (3-1, 1-0 BSC) hands Longwood (1-3, 0-1 BSC) its second straight loss.

"There are a lot of positives to take away from this match," said Longwood head coach Pierre Tafelski. "We almost took the double point playing against the top team in the conference, and got a big win from Alfonso (Castellano). This team of young men has shown a lot of character, and we saw that today."

With the double point on the line, Castellano and Julian Farthing took the No. 1 doubles match to the brink before Coastal's Velickovic and Pedro Leme escaped with a 7-5 victory to give their team the point.  

After Longwood trailed 1-0 in doubles after the first match, Longwood's  sophomore Lachlan Manser and junior Florian Uffer defeated Coastal Caroliina's Jabor Al-Mutawa and Sebastian Schneider 6-3 at the No. 2 position to even the score 1-1.

Coastal Carolina sealed the match victory with a Jabor Al-Mutawa singles win over Longwood junior Florian Uffer at the No. 2 singles position. Mutawa earned a 6-4, 6-3 victory to hand Uffer his first singles loss of the spring after entering the match 2-0.

The Lancers nearly came away with two singles wins on the day, as freshman Julian Farthing took Coastal's Sebastian Schneider to three sets after taking the first set. However, Sebastian Schneider ultimately reeled off wins in back-to-back sets to defeat Farthing 4-6, 6-2, 10-5 at the No. 4 singles spot.

Longwood looks to end its two-match skid next weekend against Christopher Newport, as the team travels to Newport News, Va., on Feb. 20. The match is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.

#GoWood

Match Results

Coastal Carolina 6, Longwood 1
Singles

1. CASTELLANO, Alfonso (LWU) def. VELICKOVIC, Vuk (CCU) 6-4, 7-5

2. AL-MUTAWA, Jabor (CCU) def. UFFER, Florian (LWU) 6-4, 6-3

3. LEME, Pedro (CCU) def. SANKAR, Bharani (LWU) 6-0, 6-4

4. SCHNEIDER, Sebastian (CCU) def. FARTHING, Julian (LWU) 4-6, 6-2, 10-5

5. MIGLIANO, Francesco (CCU) def. Rosen Ilchey (LWU) 6-0, 6-1

6. PLANCHARD, Nic (CCU) def. MANSER, Lachlan (LWU) 6-1, 6-1

 
Doubles

1. LEME/VELICKOVIC (CCU) def. CASTELLANO/FARTHING (LWU) 7-5

2. MANSER/UFFER (LWU) def. AL-MUTAWA/SCHNEIDER (CCU) 6-3

3. FARIA, Luiz/TIMMERMAN, Rick (CCU) def. SANKAR/ILCHEV (LWU) 6-0

 
Match notes:

Longwood 1-3

Coastal Carolina 4-1

Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (6,5,3,2,4,1)