Harrogate, TN - In their final home game of the season, the Lincoln Memorial Men's Tennis team left Harrogate in style, sweeping UVA Wise four sets to none as the Railsplitters improved to 13-8 and 7-2 in the South Atlantic Conference. 

LMU drew first blood from the third doubles pool, as the team of Ethan Hirons and Radu Florea made quick work of their opponents from Wise. After jumping out to a 4-0 lead, Hirons and Florea cruised for the remainder of the match, allowing just one point en route to a 6-1 victory, improving their record to 12-5 as a pairing this season. 

After wise evened the score, the Railsplitters secured the doubles point thanks to their top pairing of Victor Bourguignon and Sergio Sebastian Aranzeta Boneta. After the match started with the two sides trading points, the Splitters duo pulled ahead with a 3-1 advantage, maintaining a two-point lead on the Cavaliers to secure the 6-4 victory and the 1-0 lead for LMU going into singles play. 

The first singles point of the day went to LMU, as in the first singles game, Alexandru Rares Giurea picked up his 10th win of the season in two sets over the Cavaliers. Rares Giurea started the first set with a 2-0 lead, but saw his opponent battle back to tie the set at 3-3. Rares Giurea pulled away towards the end of the opening set, securing three consecutive points for a 6-3 win. The second set started slower for Rares Giurea, as he fell behind 2-0 before turning it on, scoring the next six points to finish of the sweep with a 6-2 victory. 

LMU snagged the third point of the match from the sixth singles position, as Bourguignon turned a close first set into a two sets to one sweep of his opponent. Bourguignon started down 4-1 in the first set to the Cavaliers. Bourguignon found a second gear after that, not only closing out the first set with a 6-4 win, but earning a 6-0 sweep in the second set to pick up a win, giving LMU a 3-0 lead.

The Splitters finished off the win in the fourth singles match, as Florea took home a two-sets sweep in give LMU the match point. Florea led wire-to-wire in the opening set, turning a 2-0 lead eventually into a 3-1 advantage, and would secure the 6-3 set victory. Florea lept out to a 4-2 lead in the second set before the Cavaliers jumped back into the match, scoring the next three points to but Florea into a 5-4 defecit. Florea found a way to battle out of it, eventually securing a 7-5 win an a two-set sweep.

The Splitters hit the road on Thursday for a rivalry matchup against Carson-Newman. First serve is set for 11:00 a.m. in Jefferson City. 

RESULTS

Doubles:
#1: Victor Bourguignon/Sergio Sebastian Aranzeta Boneta vs Yi-Hsuan Chen/Genis Ribas: 6-4
#2: Alexandru Rares Giurea/Mathis Amsellem vs Chathurya Nilaweera/Mario Viana de la Torre: 3-6
#3: Ethan Hirons/Radu Florea vs Miguel De Rueda/Daniel Gonzalez Garza: 6-1

Singles:
#1: Alexandru Rares Giurea vs Chathurya Nilaweera: 6-3, 6-2
#2: Mathis Amsellem vs Miguel De Rueda: 6-2, 4-6, 1-3 (UF)
#3: Ethan Hirons vs Genis Ribas: 7-5, 3-6, 0-3 (UF)
#4: Radu Florea vs Mario Viana de la Torre: 6-3, 7-5
#5: Kai Miyatake vs Daniel Gonzalez Garza: 6-2, 3-6, 2-1 (UF)
#6: Victor Bourguignon vs Dmitrii Semenov: 6-4, 6-0