The University of Charleston men's tennis team's run to a Mountain East Conference tournament championship fell one win short Sunday. The Golden Eagles watched an early lead slip away to West Virginia Wesleyan, falling 5-3 in Huntington.
UC, in its first MEC men's tennis tournament final since 2014, had already pulled off one upset this weekend as the No. 4 seed. The Golden Eagles knocked off top-seeded and defending tournament champ West Liberty in the semifinals and hoped that magic would carry over to the championships against the No. 2-seed Bobcats.
Early on, it looked like Charleston had a chance. It took a 2-1 lead out of the doubles competition, with the No. 1 team of Alec Foote and Domenick Centofanti and the No. 2 team of Ben Lakeman and Alec Gracin picking up wins. The momentum slowed in the singles matches, though.
Wesleyan took three straight matches at the No. 6, 4 and 3 seeds to take a 4-2 lead. Lakeman kept the Golden Eagles' hopes alive with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Lukas Laipold, but UC would need to sweep the final two matches of the day for the comeback. That didn't come to fruition, as Wesleyan's Jacobo Rendon defeated Jamie Gibson, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 5 to clinch the title for the Bobcats.
The Golden Eagles finished the MEC season with plenty to cheer, as Foote and Lakeman were named All-MEC first teamers and Gibson was named to the second team. Reaching the NCAA regional tournament, though, would be difficult. The Atlantic Region's top seven are selected and UC was ranked eighth this past week.