FARMVILLE, Va. – In this season's first conference meeting at Lancer Courts, Liberty fired off a quick start with three doubles wins as the Flames earned a 7-0 victory over Longwood men's tennis Wednesday afternoon to end the Lancers' two-match win streak.
 
At the start of the day, Liberty (5-5, 1-0) received two of three doubles victories via tiebreaker to earn the doubles point en route to starting its conference slate of matches undefeated. Liberty junior Sam Matheson and senior Egon Samaai clinched the the doubles point with a 7-6, 8-6, win in their hard-fought contest against the Longwood pairing of Alfonso Castellano and Julian Farthing at the No. 1 position. Prior to that finish, Liberty's duo of David Bush and Diego Castano was taken to the brink by Longwood senior Bharani Sankar and Rosen Ilchev in the first set before getting out ahead for a 7-3 in the deciding set.
 
"We came out strong in doubles and were very close to getting it," said Longwood head coach Pierre Tafelski. "This match was a matter of dropping a few close points."
 
The Flames took advantage of their hot start with a near sweep from Castano and back-to-back 6-4, 6-3 wins by Eddie Gutierrez and Alex Poynter in singles action to seal the match. Castano swept the second set 6-0, after taking the first 6-1, to defeat Longwood's Ilchev in the No. 5 slot. Gutierrez then beat Farthing in No. 4 singles while Poynter topped Sankar in the next finish at the No. 3.
 
Making his first appearance of this spring in the No. 2 singles position, the sophomore Castellano put up an earnest attempt at helping Longwood avoid being swept for the first time this year. Castellano took his match against Liberty's Samaai to a third set before ultimately falling 6-1, 7-6, 7-5 to see his three-match win streak come to an end.
 
Liberty's Matheson added a solid singles performance to go along with his doubles win earlier in the day with his win over Longwood junior Uffer, who was moved into the No. 1 slot in the match. Matheson earned a 6-3, 6-4 victory in the fourth singles finish of the day.
 
"I credit the guys for trying to battle back, but Liberty used their momentum in each match better than we did. We will use the positive things we did today to prepare for Gardner-Webb," Tafelski said.
 
Longwood (3-4, 0-2 BSC) will look to enter the conference win column when it plays its third straight home match vs. Gardner-Webb Friday, March 4. The match is slated for a 3 p.m. start at Lancer Courts.
 
#GoWood
 
Match Results
Longwood 0, Liberty 7
 
Singles

1. MATHESON, Sam (LIBERTY) def. UFFER, Florian (LWU) 6-3, 6-4

2. SAMAAI, Egon (LIBERTY) def. CASTELLANO, Alfonso (LWU) 6-1, 7-6 (7-5)

3. POYNTER, Alex (LIBERTY) def. SANKAR, Bharani (LWU) 6-4, 6-3

4. GUTIERREZ, Eddie (LIBERTY) def. FARTHING, Julian (LWU) 6-4, 6-3

5. CASTANO, Diego (LIBERTY) def. ILCHEV, Rosen (LWU) 6-1, 6-0

6. BORCUTI, Max (LIBERTY) def. MANSER, Lachlan (LWU) 6-3, 6-0

Doubles

1. MATHESON/SAMAAI (LIBERTY) def. CASTELLANO/FARTHING (LWU) 7-6, 8-6

2. GUTIERREZ/POYNTER (LIBERTY) def. UFFER/MANSER (LWU) 6-4

3. BUSH/CASTANO (LIBERTY) def. SANKAR/ILCHEV (LWU) 7-6, 7-3

Match Notes:

Longwood (3-4, 0-2 BSC) Liberty (5-5, 1-0 BSC)

Order of Finish

Doubles: 2,3,1

Singles: 5,4,3,1,2,6