CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The UVa-Wise men's tennis team saw its 2016 campaign come to an end Saturday afternoon in Charleston, West Virginia, in the Mountain East Conference tournament semifinals. The fourth-seeded Cavaliers (11-9, 4-3 MEC) were outmatched against the top-seeded Bobcats of West Virginia Wesleyan (19-4, 6-1 MEC) and fell 5-0 in the first semifinal match of the day at the Schoenbaum Tennis Courts.
 
After sweeping doubles, the Bobcats only needed two singles match wins to clinch the team victory. West Virginia Wesleyan was able to get straight-set wins at No. 4 and No. 6 singles before UVa-Wise could earn a match win.
 
Ramon Rodriguez and Pedro Nassar of West Virginia Wesleyan took second doubles (8-2) against senior Oleg Kopychenko (Simferopol, Ukraine) and sophomore Noah Aldridge (Pennington Gap, Va.), while the ninth-ranked doubles duo in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Atlantic Region of Nathan Sabate and Ferran Berga avenged their regular-season loss against senior Vladyslav Akimenko (Donetsk, Ukraine) and sophomore Andrii Rutnytskyi (Odessa, Ukraine) with an 8-3 win.
 
At No. 3 doubles, the tandem of sophomores Viktor Tunnikov (Kharkiv, Ukraine) and Christopher Armistead (Virginia Beach, Va.) were defeated 8-4 by West Virginia Wesleyan's Jacobo Rendon and Andre Fernandes.
 
Rutnytskyi took the first set off of the Bobcats' Rodiguez, who is ranked 19th in the ITA Atlantic Region, at second singles but was not able to finish his match before West Virginia Wesleyan clinched the team win.
 
The Bobcats' Timothy Stephens earned a 6-1, 6-4 win over Tunnikov at No. 4 singles to give West Virginia Wesleyan a 4-0 lead. Needing only one more match, the Bobcats got a win at the sixth spot when Fernandes defeated freshman Blake Pientka (Wise, Va.) 6-0, 6-0.
 
In his final match as a Cavalier, Akimenko was leading the 14th-ranked singles player in the ITA Atlantic Region, Sabate of West Virginia Wesleyan, 5-4 in the first set at the top flight.
 
The loss wraps up a very successful men's tennis season. UVa-Wise earned 11 dual match wins for the most victories in a single season in over a decade and became the first tennis team, men or women, to claim a MEC postseason win. The Cavs had won seven of their last eight matches before bowing out of the conference tournament semifinals.
 
Visit uvawisecavs.com for all Cavalier men's tennis news, statistics, complete schedule and more.
 
Full Match Results
#1 West Virginia Wesleyan 5, #4 UVa-Wise 0
 
Singles
1. Nathan Sabate (WVW) vs. Vladyslav Akimenko (WISE) unfinished
2. Ramon Rodriguez (WVW) vs. Andrii Rutnytskyi (WISE) unfinished
3. Ferran Berga (WVW) vs. Oleg Kopychenko (WISE) unfinished
4. Timothy Stephens (WVW) def. Viktor Tunnikov (WISE) 6-1, 6-4
5. Pedro Nassar (WVW) vs. C. Armistead (WISE) unfinished
6. Andre Fernandes (WVW) def. Blake Pientka (WISE) 6-0, 6-0
 
Doubles
1. Nathan Sabate/Ferran Berga (WVW) def. Vladyslav Akimenko/Andrii Rutnytskyi (WISE) 8-3
2. Ramon Rodriguez/Pedro Nassar (WVW) def. Oleg Kopychenko/Noah Aldridge (WISE) 8-2
3. Jacobo Rendon/Andre Fernandes (WVW) def. Viktor Tunnikov/C. Armistead (WISE) 8-4