Liberty Falls on the Road at ECU

The Liberty men's tennis squad fell, 6-1, to host East Carolina, Wednesday at the River Birch Tennis Complex.

East Carolina moves to 14-3 with their fifth straight win, while Liberty falls to 7-8 and sees its three-match winning streak snapped.

The Flames saw their three-match winning streak halted at East Carolina, Wednesday.

The Pirates won the doubles point from the Flames, snapping Liberty's run of three doubles point victories. ECU's top duo, Freddie McGeehan and James Ling, won, 6-2 over Alex Poynter and Diego Castano to start the afternoon.

In the No. 2 match, the Pirates' Vlad Anghel and Fredric Lehfeldt were even, 5-5, with the Flames' Vince Salas and Eddie Gutierrez before winning the last two games to prevail, 7-5. Anghel and Lehfeldt's victory gave ECU a 1-0 lead heading into singles.

East Carolina grew its lead to 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-2 victory from Kasey Countee against Max Borcuti in the No. 5 match. The Pirates drew within a point of victory, as Giorgi knocked off Liberty's Chase Burton on court two, 6-1, 6-1, to make the score 3-0.

ECU's fourth and match-winning point came from Anghel, its No. 3 player. Anghel took down Gutierrez in straight sets (6-2, 6-4).

The Flames' lone point came from the No. 4 position. Liberty's Castano led Lehfeldt, 2-0 in the third set before the ECU senior was forced to retire the match and concede the point to Castano.

On court one, McGeehan bested Salas (6-3, 6-4), while the Pirates' Will Bissett settled the final score at 6-1 with his 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Poynter in the No. 6 slot.

On Saturday, Liberty will return to Big South Conference competition against Gardner-Webb (7-10, 2-1 Big South) at noon at the GWU Tennis Courts in Boiling Springs, N.C. Following Saturday's match, the Flames will take on No. 17 Georgia Tech (10-2, 3-0 ACC) at 5:30 p.m., Sunday at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex in Atlanta, Ga.