FARMVILLE, Va. – Doubles play proved once again to the catalyst for another Longwood men's tennis victory, as the Lancers took the opening point and cruised to a 6-1 Big South win over visiting USC Upstate Sunday afternoon at the Lancer Courts.
 
Behind doubles wins at the top of the order from the No. 1 duo of Marc Casasnovas and Rosen Nayden and the No. 2 pairing of Amadeo Blasco and Guillermo Cagigas, the Lancers (7-5) improved to 6-1 when claiming the doubles point and pulled out their first Big South win of the season.
 
Both Longwood doubles wins came in quick fashion, with Blasco and Cagigas working USC Upstate's duo of Guilherme Diniz and Luka Eble 6-3, and Casasnovas and Naydenov clinching the point with a 6-2 takedown of Leon Roider and Frederick Sydow. Longwood never trailed the rest of the way, and ran that lead to 3-0 before the Spartans finally got on the board with a singles win at No. 4.
 
However, after straight-set singles victories from Guilherme Sergio at No. 2 and Casasnovas at No. 5, the Lancers needed just one more point to lock up the win and got it from freshman Ignacio Sandoval, who toppled Eble 7-5, 6-4 at No. 3 to a chorus of cheers from his teammates and the assembled crowd on the sunny, 66-degree day at Longwood's home court.
 
"I'm extremely happy for Nacho and how he's developed himself," said Longwood head coach Jhonnatan Medina Alvarez. "He's becoming a stronger player and more of a thinker, and for that I'm happy.
 
"Overall doubles was good and one of the best I've seen us play in a long time. The attitude was there, the energy was there, and it was a great performance."
 
That win was the fourth straight for Sandoval, who now leads the team in singles wins with a 9-3 record. His fellow Longwood frontrunner Blasco responded to his clincher by capping a hard-fought win of his own at the top line, taking down USC Upstate ace Leon Roider 6-2, 7-6. That win was Blasco's sixth in a row and the 95th of his career, putting him within five more victories of becoming the first Lancer in program history to hit the century mark for wins in a career.
 
With the win already securely in hand with a 5-1 advantage, Longwood freshman Ernest Rocabert punctuated the victory by grinding out two tiebreak sets in a 7-6, 7-6 takedown of his No. 6 counterpart Sydow.
 
"For the men, every single player has to be engaged. The level is really equal with all the other teams in the conference, and we just have to be ready for whatever comes our way," Medina Alvarez said. "We proved that with a good win today, and hopefully that gives us some confidence going into our match against Gardner-Webb."
 
The win is Longwood's third in the past four matches and sends the Lancers into a match-free week that coincides with the campus' return from this past week's spring break. Longwood will return to action next Saturday, March 14, with another Big South showdown against Gardner-Webb at 11 a.m.
 
Longwood 6, USC Upstate 1
February 8, 2020
Farmville, Va. (Lancer Courts)
 
Singles
1. BLASCO, Amadeo (LWUM) def. ROIDER, Leon (USCU) 6-2, 7-6
2. SERGIO, Guilherme (LWUM) def. BERNARDES, Fernando (USCU) 6-3, 6-1
3. SANDOVAL, Ignacio (LWUM) def. EBLE, Luka (USCU) 7-5, 6-4
4. DINIZ, Guilherme (USCU) def. CAGIGAS, Guillermo (LWUM) 6-3, 6-4
5. CASASNOVAS, Marc (LWUM) def. RUSSWURM, Tom (USCU) 6-3, 6-2
6. ROCABERT, Ernest (LWUM) def. SYDOW, Frederick (USCU) 7-6, 7-6
 
Doubles
1. CASASNOVAS, Marc/NAYDENOV, Rosen (LWUM) def. ROIDER, Leon/SYDOW, Frederick (USCU) 6-2
2. BLASCO, Amadeo/CAGIGAS, Guillermo (LWUM) def. DINIZ, Guilherme/EBLE, Luka (USCU) 6-3
3. SERGIO, Guilherme/ROCABERT, Ernest (LWUM) vs. BERNARDES, Fernando/RUSSWURM, Tom (USCU) 5-3, unfinished
 
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (2,5,4,3,1,6)
 
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