Charleston, WV- Big Blues take the capital by force with 2 opening season wins!
The Big Blues came out strong against West Virginia State, taking it to them early in the doubles matches. Our doubles pairings set the tone at the beginning as each duo won 8-0 in their respective match. Jacob Carey and Aziz Yuldashev were partners for Doubles #1, Ignacio Pulido and Platon Gud were the Big Blues #2 Doubles and Anthony Braem and Alexandr Rudenco were the #3 Doubles.
The singles were much of the same as all players won their matches in 2 sets. #1 Jacob Carey won 6-0, 6-1 and #2 Anthony Braem followed suit with a 6-0, 6-0 match victory. Lorenzo Panariti saw his first action of the day with a 6-2, 6-1 win. The match was topped off by Guillermo Lopez's first match of the day by emphatically ending the contest with a 6-0, 6-0 win.
The second contest against University of Charleston was a little bit of a tougher match for the Big Blues. Many of the matches were close throughout but the Big Blues ended up with a 7-2 victory. In the doubles matches Ignacio was paired with Anthony in doubles 2 this time and they won 8-3. Alexandr and Guillermo were also paired and won a very close match with an 8-5 score. The doubles 1 stayed the same from the West Virginia State match but were handed their first loss by a score of 8-5.
The singles matches were even closer with 3 going into a decisive 3rd set and 2 of those matches having to use a tie breaker to win. Jacob Carey in singles 1 was the first to go into 3 sets finally pulling out a victory 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Alex's singles match was very back and forth and went to a 3rd set tie breaker. After battling back he was handed his first loss by scores of 6-1, 4-6, 10-8. Ignacio was the other Big Blue to use a 3rd set tie breaker and his was the closest match all day. He was very evenly matched by Jake Lorenz of Charleston but pulled through in the end with a 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 victory.
The Big Blues will be back in action on Sunday February 28th as they take on Chowan at 12:00 pm. This match will be played at the Greenbriar Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV as a great neutral site location for the schools.
