NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – There's a new all-time wins leader at Longwood, and his name is
Amadeo Blasco.
The Lancers' long-time senior ace capped a years-long pursuit of one of the men's tennis program's most prestigious records Saturday afternoon at Christopher Newport with a 7-5, 6-1 takedown of Scotty Hunter that was the milestone 89th career win for the Valencia, Spain, native.
The historic win came just 24 hours after Longwood University celebrated its 100th season of varsity athletics with a special event Friday evening at Radcliff Hall and pushed Blasco past former Longwood great
Nobu Tanaka into first place on the program's career singles wins leaderboard. With that record now in hand, Blasco now has ownership of the Longwood quadfecta of singles wins, singles winning percentage, doubles wins and doubles winning percentage.
"I'm extremely happy for Ama and the teams, both the men and women," said Longwood head coach
Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez, who took over the Longwood program midway through Blasco's sophomore year. "Seeing him break the record and knowing he still has so many matches to play makes me really happy for him. He's a great tennis player, but more important are the standards he sets for himself and the team, and the culture he helps to create for our program."
Blasco's record-setting victory came as part of a 7-0 sweep over Division III powerhouse Christopher Newport, which entered the spring season with a No. 40 Intercollegiate Tennis Association ranking. Along with Blasco's straight-set sweep, the Lancers rolled at all six singles spots and claimed two of three doubles bouts for their second straight win to start the spring.
"We did a great job coming out here and performing," Medina Alvarez said. "It's not always easy to play indoors on fast courts, and these teams are really good.
"Sometimes we talk about divisions in college athletics, but that doesn't account for everything in this sport. You can't look at a division number and appreciate the effort and the level of competition these players have, especially programs like CNU. That was the case today, but both teams matched that."
The Lancer women also picked up a 5-2 win over the Captains earlier in the day to improve to 3-0, making both teams a combined 5-1 to start the spring.
The men pulled off a near-sweep at all spots with the lone loss coming at No. 3 doubles. The Lancers more than countered that defeat with wins at doubles No. 1 from Blasco and
Guillermo Cagigas 8-4, and at No. 2 from
Guilherme Sergio and
Marc Casasnovas, 8-4.
Each of those four went on to earn singles wins as well, with Sergio taking the No. 1 bout over Dominic Lacombe 6-1, 6-3, Cagigas following at No. 3 with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Ryan Macy and Casasnovas taking down Bently Goodwin 6-4, 6-3 at No. 5.
Longwood's freshman duo of
Ignacio Sandoval and
Ernest Rocabert also won at Nos. 4 and 6, respectively, with matching straight-set wins.
Now the Lancers have less than 24 hours to prep for their second bout of the weekend, which sends them to Williamsburg, Va., Sunday for a noon first serve.
Longwood 7, Christopher Newport 0
February 6, 2020
Newport News, Va. (CNU Tennis Courts)
Singles
1. SERGIO, Guilherme (LWUM) def. LACOMBE, Dominic (CNU) 6-1, 6-3
2. BLASCO, Amadeo (LWUM) def. HUNTER, Scotty (CNU) 7-5, 6-1
3. CAGIGAS, Guillermo (LWUM) def. MACY, Ryan (CNU) 6-3, 6-0
4. SANDOVAL, Ignacio (LWUM) def. MASON, Andy (CNU) 6-4, 6-3
5. CASASNOVAS, Marc (LWUM) def. GOODWIN, Bently (CNU) 6-4, 6-3
6. ROCABERT, Ernest (LWUM) def. DUBUQUE, Matthew (CNU) 6-2, 6-0
Doubles
1. BLASCO, Amadeo/CAGIGAS, Guillermo (LWUM) def. MACY, Ryan/MASON, Andy (CNU) 8-4
2. SERGIO, Guilherme/CASASNOVAS, Marc (LWUM) def. HUNTER, Scotty/DUBUQUE, Matthew (CNU) 8-4
3. BARON, James/GOODWIN, Bently (CNU) def. NAYDENOV, Rosen/ROCABERT, Ernest (LWUM) 8-5
Match Notes
Longwood 2-1
Christopher Newport 0-1
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