Rock Hill, S.C. – The top seeded Radford team earned its second straight Big South Championship title by defeating No. 6 Winthrop, 4-2 on Saturday afternoon and earned an automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

Winthrop captured the doubles point by winning two very close matches at the No. 1 and No. 2.  Radford’s James Lloyd and Paul Boslet easily topped Marcin Majchrzak and Jose Pardo in the No. 3 doubles, which left the doubles point to be decided by the No. 1 and No. 2 flights.  In the No. 1, Vinicius Bortolatto and Arthur Takahashi from Winthrop upended the Radford duo of Martin Sayer and Zack Watson for the first time all season with a score of 9-7, while Eagle players Rodrigo Santos and Alejandro Portugal topped Mehdi Benhammou and Ivan Salec, also with a score of 9-7. 

Despite loosing the doubles point, Radford was able to bounce back and win four singles matches to win the title.  After three matches were completed, the score was knotted at 2-2.  Radford’s Sayer, downed Bortolatto, 7-6, 6-2 in the No. 1, while Watson triumphed over Pardo, 7-6, 6-2 in the No. 5 flight, which gave the Highlanders two points.  Winthrop evened it up by winning the No. 6 flight, with Majchrzak topping Boslet, 6-2, 6-2.  Radford retook the lead in the No. 3 Singles, with Lloyd taking down Portugal in three sets, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 and then closed out the match with Benhammou edging past Takashi with identical scores of 7-6.

With the win, Radford improves to 15-1 overall and will continue its season in two weeks in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament.  The Eagles end their season 12-12.

Doubles
No. 1 – Bortolatto/Takahashi (WU) def. Sayer/Watson (RU) 9-7
No. 2 – Santos/Portugal (WU) def. Benhammou/Salec (RU) 9-7
No. 3 – Lloyd/Boslet (RU) def. Majchrzak/Pardo (WU) 8-1

Singles
No. 1 – Martin Sayer (RU) def. Vinicius Bortolatto (WU) 7-6, 6-2
No. 2 – Rodrigo Santos (WU) vs. Ivan Salec (RU) 7-5, 4-6, 5-2 unfinished
No. 3 – James Lloyd (RU) def. Alejandro Portugal (WU) 6-1, 1-6, 6-3
No. 4 – Mehdi Benhammou (RU) def. Arthur Takahashi (WU) 7-6, 7-6
No. 5 – Zack Watson (RU) def. Jose Pardo (WU) 7-6, 6-2
No. 6 – Marcin Majchrzak (WU) def. Paul Boslet (RU) 6-2, 6-2

Radford head coach Mike Anderson
“It feels very good to win the Big South Championship.  We are very glad we could do this for our University, which is putting more emphasis on athletics and winning in the Big South.  We hope we can be a catalyst for other teams at Radford to step up in the Big South.  This win was a product of an overall effort by our athletic department and we are very glad we could do this for our school.  It wasn’t easy.”