CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Chester University men's tennis team continued its West Virginia road trip on Sunday morning, as the squad traveled to the YMCA of Kanawha Valley to take on regional opponent University of Charleston.
Squaring off against the No. 6 team in the Atlantic Region, the Golden Rams suffered an 8-1 loss at the hands of the Cougars in a non-conference match early Sunday morning.
West Chester drops to 0-15 on the season following the loss, while Charleston improves to 12-7 overall following the convincing victory. The Cougars currently sit in the sixth spot in the Atlantic Regional according to the most recent NCAA DII release and UC will head into the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Championship on Friday as the third seed behind West Virginia Wesleyan (No. 1) and Fairmont State (No. 2).
West Chester defaulted at No. 3 doubles to start Sunday behind 0-1, before falling 8-2 at second flight to go down by two points in the match. Trailing 0-2, the tandem of
Lucas Von der Heyde (EXTON, PA./GREAT VALLEY) and
Charlie Rushing (YARDLEY, PA./PENNSBURY) went toe-to-toe with UC's top duo, but eventually fell 9-7 in a highly-contested affair.
WCU grabbed its lone point of the morning at No. 1 singles, as Von Der Heyde came out with a W following a default by the Cougars' Ben Lakeman. Rushing grabbed set one (7-5) in a three-set defeat at No. 2 position to end the day and mark the only set victory for a Golden Ram on Sunday.
West Chester closes out the 2017-18 season on Tuesday, April 17, when the team welcomes Harford Community College to the South Campus Tennis Courts for a match at 3:00 p.m.
