SUMTER, S.C. – The Barton men's tennis team (12-5) won twice on Friday – 4-0 over King and 4-3 over Southern Wesleyan – on the first day of the 2021 Conference Carolinas Championship at the Palmetto Tennis Center.
The Bulldogs are the fifth seed in this year's league tournament while the Tornado (3-10) and the Warriors (8-8) were seeded eighth and fourth, respectively. Barton now advances to take on top-seeded Mount Olive (10-3) in the semifinals on Saturday afternoon beginning at 2:00 p.m.
Barton was able to easily get past short-handed King before setting up a showdown with Southern Wesleyan which came down to the wire.
The Bulldogs were finally able to overcome the Warriors when sophomore
Matteo Savio (Malvern, AUSTRALIA) rallied to defeat Southern Wesleyan's Julio Lopes Polesi (Sao Paulo, BRAZIL) by a score 6-7, 6-3 and 6-3 at fourth singles.
In addition, Barton senior
Alessandro Gerbino (Borlange, SWEDEN) beat the Warriors' Peter Kovats (Bradenton, Fla.) at No. 3 singles – 3-6, 7-5 and 6-2 – after rallying from a 5-1 deficit in the second set at No. 3 singles. Gerbino also teamed with freshman
Gustavo Camelo (Goiânia, BRAZIL) to win at third doubles to lead the Bulldogs. Barton avenged a regular season loss to Southern Wesleyan on the road as well.
