BOX SCORE

Rock Hill, S.C.----The top-seeded Wingate University Bulldogs defeated fourth-seeded Lincoln Memorial 5-3 in semifinal action of the 2011 Food Lion SAC Men’s Tennis Tournament Thursday afternoon. The Bulldogs win their 13th consecutive match, improving to 17-3 overall. LMU falls to 13-6 overall.

Lincoln Memorial’s number one doubles team of Philipp Hoffmann (Karlsruhe, Germany) and Tom Goossens (Moerbeke-Waas, Belgium) gave the Railsplitters a 1-0 lead, taking an 8-2 victory over Andrew Owen (Kitchener, Ontario) and Flavio Rathsam (Sao Paulo, Brazil).

Fernando Montemurro (Sao Pualo, Brazil) and Greg Machado (Sao Pualo, Brazil) evened the match at one with an 8-3 win in number three doubles. Matthew Lichtenstein (Darnestown, Md.) and Braeden Patchell (Oakville, Ontario) won the final two games to claim a 9-7 victory in number three doubles, giving Wingate a 2-1 advantage heading to singles action.

Rathsam notched the first win in singles action, claiming a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Alexey Minevskiy (Taganrog, Russia). Patchell won 6-3, 6-2 over Michael Koenen (Auckland, New Zealand) in number four singles to put the Bulldogs on top 4-1. Hoffman gave LMU a victory at number one singles, defeating Lichtenstein 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 to make it 4-2.

Lincoln Memorial’s Marcelo Alvim (Sao Paulo, Brazil) made it 4-3 with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Owen in number two doubles. Montemurro clinched the win for the Bulldogs, winning his ninth straight match with a 7-5, 7-6 victory over Goossens in number five singles.

The Bulldogs advance to Friday’s championship match, taking on second-seeded Anderson at 9 a.m. Wingate defeated the Trojans 5-4 in the regular season meeting.