WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wofford men's tennis team fell, 7-0, to top-ranked No. 1 Wake Forest at the Wake Forest Tennis Center on Wednesday afternoon to start the 2019 spring season. The loss drops Wofford to 0-1 as Wake Forest moves to 1-0 prior to their doubleheader match against Gardner-Webb.
 
"I really like this year's team. Focused, dedicated, and unselfish are ways to appropriately describe their approach to this match," said head coach Rod Ray of the match. "We're no where near where we want to be, but we're going to be just fine."
 
The Terriers battled hard throughout doubles play, but unfortunately couldn't close the gap as Wake Forest would take all three matches, 6-4. The duo of Julian Chousa and John Crawford competed in the No. 1 spot for Wofford, falling to Wake Forest's pair of Petros Chrysochos and Siddhant Banthia. The Demon Deacons would see their next doubles win in the No. 3 spot, as Rrezart Cungu and Morgan Dill would defeat Lucas Cerbelli and Javi Casasolas. Omar Williams and Bryce Keim would round out doubles play in the No. 2 position, falling to Melios Efstathiou and Julian Zlobinsky shortly after to give Wake a 1-0 lead.
 
The Demon Deacons went on to showcase their prowess as defending national champions in singles play, taking all six singles matches. The first win would come in the No. 4 position, as Edu Villar fell to Julian Zoblinsky, 6-2, 6-1. After Kyle Barr fell to Siddhant Banthia (6-1, 6-1) in the No. 5 position, Wake Forest's Yuval Solomon would secure their third singles win over Omar Williams in the No. 3 position to claim a 4-0 lead. Diego Losada competed in the No. 6 position for Wofford, falling to Morgan Dill, 6-3, 6-1.
 
Lucas Cerbelli would hold his own facing No. 80 nationally ranked Rrezart Cungu, taking the second set, 6-4, after bouncing back from a 6-0 first set. Cungu would, however, wrap up the third set 6-1 to take the win. Julian Chousa fought hard with a challenge in the No. 1 position against No. 39 Melios Efstathiou, but ultimately fell, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, to give the Demon Deacons the 7-0 win.
 
"We played the defending national champs who are obviously really good, but we have a strong team too," added coach Ray. "This is going to be a fun year."
 
Next, the Terriers will travel to Chapel Hill, North Carolina for their first doubleheader of the season on Saturday, January 19 against No. 6 UNC at 10 a.m., followed by Bucknell at 1:30 p.m.