FARMVILLE, Va. – On a nice, warm afternoon at Lancer Courts, the sun wasn't the only thing shining.

Longwood men's tennis shined bright with a 4-0 win over Norfolk State Monday afternoon on Senior Day to send Longwood senior Bharani Sankar off with a victory after his final appearance in front of the home crowd.

After receiving special recognition prior to his final regular season match in a Lancer uniform, Sankar contributed one of two singles wins to go along with the team's doubles point win to give Longwood (7-14, 0-8 BSC) its second sweep of the season. In the second singles finish, sophomore Alfonso Castellano earned a win at the No. 1 for the Lancers' match-clinching point vs. a Spartans (6-14, 4-0 MEAC) squad that sits in first place in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

"What a great way to end our home campaign on Senior Day," said Longwood head coach Pierre Tafelski, who is in his first year at Longwood. "We played a focused and disciplined match against a competitive Norfolk State team."

In front of a large crowd that came out to support the lone senior, Sankar cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 straight sets victory over Norfolk St. sophomore Fatehdeep Singh in the No. 5 singles flight. A product of Glen Allen, Va., Sankar's victory pushed his consecutive win streak to two matches to end his regular season career.

"It was a good win," said Sankar. "This program has meant a lot to me the last four years, so riding off into the sunset is a good way to end it."

Sankar, who finishes his senior season with three wins in his last five contests, puts a win on Senior Day in front of his many supporters atop his list of all-time favorite memories in his four-year career at Longwood.

"This is number one for sure," Sankar said. "We were able to push through and get a win against a team that is undefeated in its conference. Also, with the crowd to be able to help us win on my senior day, it's my number one right now."

After playing for the final time in front of a crowd of over 60 in attendance, just about all of which gathered in front of the No. 5 court to witness his final regular season win, Sankar showed his appreciation for the fans who have given him and his teammates an extra edge in home matches.

"I think the fans did a great job of getting into the heads of our opponents. They have been around all year and we can't thank them enough for their support. It's the number one crowd in our own conference and we were able feed off of them. They give you a lot of reasons to work hard for and I couldn't have asked for a better crowd during these past few years," he said.

In addition to the pair of singles wins, Longwood swept the only two doubles matches played on the day to take the doubles point. Due to a Spartan forfeit at the No. 3 because of an insufficient amount of players, Lancer duo of junior Florian Uffer and sophomore Lachlan Manser secured the point with a 6-2 victory over Norfolk St. pairing of Singh and Antonio Pejic at the No. 2.

Longwood sophomore Alfonso Castellano and freshman Julian Farthing beat Norfolk St. duo of Benedikt Henning and Flavian Hernandez in the No. 1 doubles bout to complete the doubles sweep. The win marked the sophomore-freshman duo's 10th doubles win of the season.

"Because of good intensity and energy, the guys played at a high level in doubles and singles to get the victory," said Tafelksi.

Castellano also secured the match sweep for the Lancers with his 6-2, 6-4 victory vs. Henning in the second singles finish of the day following an early 3-0 lead.

In addition to wins from Castellano and Sankar, Longwood claimed its other singles point of the day by forfeit at the No. 6 due to lack of an available Norfolk St. player for that flight.

At the conclusion of his first regular season at the helm of the Longwood men's tennis program, Tafelski praised his team's senior leader for contributing a final win to the program on top of providing a good influence as a student-athlete.

"Congratulations to Bharani for an outstanding college career. He has brought a lot of positive things to our program, university and community," he said.

Longwood will now head to Lynchburg, Va., as the No. 9 seed in the 2016 Big South Men's Tennis Championships at Liberty where it will face No. 8 Radford on Wednesday, April 13. First serve is set for 1 p.m. at the Hershey-Esbenshade Tennis Courts.

"We gained a lot of confidence going into our first round of the conference tournament. Our team is motivated and excited to compete on Wednesday against Radford," Tafelski said.

#GoWood

Match Results
Longwood 4, Norfolk St. 0

Singles
1. CASTELLANO, Alfonso (LWU) def. HENNING, Benedikt (NORFOLK) 6-2, 6-4
2. UFFER, Florian (LWU) vs. DUMITRASCU, Dan (NORFOLK) 6-3, 3-5, unfinished
3. FARTHING, Julian (LWU) vs. PEJIC, Antonio (NORFOLK) 6-7, 0-1, unfinished
4. ILCHEV, Rosen (LWU) vs. FERNANDEZ, Flavian (NORFOLK) 4-6, 4-2, unfinished
5. SANKAR, Bharani (LWU) def. SINGH, Fatehdeep (NORFOLK) 6-2, 6-3
6. MANSER, Lachlan (LWU) def. No player (NORFOLK), by forfeit

Doubles
1. CASTELLANO/FARTHING (LWU) def. FERNANDEZ/HENNING (NORFOLK) 6-4
2. UFFER/MANSER (LWU) def. PEJIC/SINGH (NORFOLK) 6-2

Match Notes:
Norfolk State 6-14
Longwood 7-14
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (5,1)
A-65