Liberty's Top Four Singles Players Lift Flames to 4-3 Win over Knights

Liberty's top four singles players delivered victories, lifting the Flames to a 4-3 victory over the Farleigh Dickinson Knights at the USTA National Campus on Monday.

The Flames snap a four-match losing skid and improve to 5-7 with the victory, while the Knights drop to 3-6 with the loss.

Liberty's top four singles players (Eddie Gutierrez, Vince Salas, Chase Burton and Diego Castano) each won their respective matches to give the Flames the necessary points.

The Flames' top four singles players delivered victories, lifting the Flames to a 4-3 victory over the Knights on Monday.

"Today was the type of win we need to be able to get. We lost a close doubles point and came back to win in straight sets on the top four courts," stated Liberty Head Men's Tennis Coach Chris Johnson. "Credit our guys with staying tough! We are still working through the process with a very young team. They showed a lot of heart today."

The Knights opened the afternoon by taking the doubles point. The doubles point ultimately came down to a tiebreaker in the No. 3 match, won 7-6 (4) by Miki Nobuzawa and Gonzalo Quintana over Burton and Max Borcuti.

The two teams split the first two doubles matches. FDU's No. 1 duo of Adam Chan and Danilo Vukotic bested Castano and Alex Poynter, 6-3. The Flames' No. 2 pairing of Vince Salas defeated Diogo Garnel and Pedro Carvalho, 6-3, for their first win as a unit, this spring.

With the Knights leading 1-0 to begin singles, Chan won his match in straight sets (6-1, 6-3) over Poynter at No. 5 singles to stake Farleigh Dickinson to a 2-0 advantage.

Castano provided the Flames their first point of the day with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Garnel in the No. 4 match. Following Castano's victory, Salomon put the Knights ahead by two points (3-1) for the second time, topping Borcuti, 6-2, 6-3 in the No. 6 slot.

Needing the final three matches and points for the victory, Gutierrez, Burton and Salas all won in two-set matches. Gutierrez needed a tiebreaker to take the first set from Quintana and went on to win the No. 1 singles match, 7-6 (6), 6-2. Burton evened the match at 3-3 with a 6-2, 7-5 triumph over Carvalho, at No. 3 singles.

Finally, Salas took down Vukotic, 6-3, 7-6 (4), giving Liberty the 4-3 victory. The win was Salas' team-best 15th singles victory of the year and third singles victory in the last five days.

Following a day off from competition, the Flames will take on Fairfield (3-9) and Saint Joseph's (4-5) in a doubleheader, Wednesday at the USTA National Campus. The matches are set for 11:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. starts, respectively.

Live video and stats will be available on Wednesday. Find the links for each match on the Liberty men's tennis schedule & results panel on LibertyFlames.com.