MURFREESBORO, N.C.— Following three straight wins in singles action capped off by a win by Longwood senior Bharani Sankar, Longwood men's tennis came up just short of a comeback to fall 5-4 to Chowen University Sunday afternoon at the Tennis Complex.

Sankar's 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Chowan's Mariano Yeh in the No. 5 singles match gave the Lancers (6-14, 0-8 BSC) their third straight singles win and fourth in the first five singles bouts of the day, but they were unable to overcome a Hawks (16-4) doubles sweep. Under the Div. II scoring format used on the day, Chowan earned a point in each of its three doubles wins on the day before securing match point with on Adi Kaliaperov's No. 4 singles win.

Despite the loss, Sankar picked up his third singles win in his last six outings and won his second of his last three matches that have been decided by a third set.

Prior to Sankar's  win, Longwood evened the match scored a pair of wins from freshman Julian Farthing at the No. 3 and sophomore Lachlan Manser at the No. 6 to give their team three points at that point.

A product of London, England, Farthing defeated Chowan sophomore Rafael Goncalves in straight sets 7-5, 6-1 to earn Longwood's second singles win of the match. Farthing's victory marked his seventh consecutive singles win and fourth overall in April.

The Lancers's third point came after Manser made a three-set comeback with wins in the final two sets for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Chowan freshman Louis Proulx. A product of Bali, Indonesia, Manser earned his third win overall during the spring season.

In addition to the three straight singles wins, Longwood junior Florian Uffer helped bring the Lancers back into the match following a three-point deficit after doubles play. Uffer topped Chowan sophomore Mateusz Izycki with a pair of 6-2 wins in straight sets for his single season career-best 10th singles victory on the year.

Chowan led 3-0 early after taking all three doubles matches behind a win by Izycki and Yeh at the No. 2 flight. The duo of Izycki and Yeh won a hard-fought match vs. Lancer pairing of Uffer and Manser for a 9-7 victory to complete their team's doubles sweep.

Longwood will now return home for its Senior Day match vs. Norfolk State on Monday, April 11 at 3 p.m. to finish the regular season. Following Monday's match, the No. 9-seeded Lancers will take on No. 8 Radford to begin the 2016 Big South Championship on Wednesday held in Lynchburg, Va., at Liberty.

#GoWood

Match Results

Longwood 4, Chowan 5

Singles
1. HAJIZADA,Farid (CHOWAN) def. CASTELLANO, Alfonso (LWU) 6-3, 0-6, 6-3
2. UFFER, Florian (LWU) def. IZYCKI,Mateusz (CHOWAN) 6-2, 6-2
3. FARTHING, Julian (LWU) def. GONCALVES,Rafael (CHOWAN) 7-5, 6-1
4. KALIAKPEROV,Adi (CHOWAN) def. ILCHEV, Rosen (LWU) 7-5, 6-0
5. SANKAR, Bharani (LWU) def. YEH,Mariano (CHOWAN) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
6. MANSER, Lachlan (LWU) def. PROULX,Louis (CHOWAN) 2-6, 6-4, 6-0

Doubles
1. HAJIZADA/KALIAKPEROV (CHOWAN) def. CASTELLANO/FARTHING (LWU) 8-5
2. YEH/IZYCKI (CHOWAN) def. UFFER/MANSER (LWU) 9-7
3. PROULX/GONCALVES (CHOWAN) def. SANKAR/ILCHEV (LWU) 8-5

Match Notes:
Longwood 6-14
Chowan 16-4
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2)
Singles (2,4,3,6,5,1)