#2 Radford Blanks #3 Gardner-Webb, Advances to Title Match
Radford (12-6) kept its season alive with a dominant victory over Gardner-Webb (8-12) Friday afternoon in the semifinals of the Big South Championship.
The day started well for the Highlanders who took on a challenging Gardner-Webb doubles lineup that is one of the best in the conference. The duo of
Demis Taramonlis and
Andres Silva were the first to finish on court two for Radford in a dominant 6-3 win. Gardner-Webb came back and won court one, though, tying up the doubles point.
Konstantinos Raptis and
Aditya Balsekar would lead early in their set and all the way through as they took the clinching court 6-3 to give Radford the 1-0 lead. Raptis and Balsekar picked up the huge win avenging their earlier season loss to Gardner-Webb on court three doubles.
In singles play the Highlanders did not let up. Balsekar showed his skill as one of the best singles players in the conference with a dominating 6-0, 6-0 win on court six. The victory made it 15 straight singles wins for the freshman and gave Radford a 2-0 lead.
Matching Balsekar in dominance was the senior
Yevhen Sirous who dispatched his opponent with ease on the top flight 6-1, 6-3. This made it a 3-0 match and left just one more court for the Highlanders to clinch.
Silva showed no weakness in his 6-3, 6-3 clinching victory on court five for the Highlanders, sealing the second straight trip to the championship for Radford. The 4-0 win is the most dominant playoff win for the Highlanders since the team's Big South Championship sweep in 2012.
Taramonlis was tied 2-2 in his third set on court two,
Guilherme Severin was up 1-0 in his third set on court three, and Raptis was down 4-6, 5-6 on court four to round out the singles competition.
Up Next
The Big South Championship match is set for 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon where the Highlanders will face the fourth seed Presbyterian who upended the one seed UNC Asheville earlier today.