Wesleyan Men Honor Kjellberg, Capture Seventh Title

Coach Andres Amores and Rob Kjellberg
Coach Andres Amores and Rob Kjellberg

Rocky Mount, N.C. - The 34th-ranked men's tennis team of North Carolina Wesleyan continued its USA South dominance over the weekend by capturing its seventh straight USA South regular season championship with 9-0 sweeps of Huntingdon and LaGrange at the Slick Family Foundation Tennis Complex.  The Bishops added a 9-0 win over #37 Christopher Newport on Sunday afternoon, and prior to the match, head coach Andres Amores recognized his lone senior, Robert Kjellberg.

Versus Huntingdon and LaGrange, the Bishops jumped out to 3-0 leads behind doubles victories by Kjellerg/Sebastian Sikh, Fernando Nardelli/Eduardo Ugalde and Fabio Pereira/Andres Gomez. Those same six breezed through singles play with a series of 12 straight-set wins over the two matches.

With a seventh straight title secured, Wesleyan faced off with former USA South rival CNU in a non-conference match on Sunday afternoon. Kjellberg again teamed with Sikh for an 8-4 win at top-seeded doubles, while Nardelli/Ugalde and Pereira/Gomez posted 8-3 and 8-1 victories, respectively.

Singles play saw Sikh, Pereira, Nardelli, Gomez and Ugalde all move up a seed, while Mark Sokolov posted a straight-set win at #6 (6-2, 6-2). Sikh and Nardelli each needed three set to tally their victories, which secured Wesleyan's tenth shutout of the season.

The Bishops (13-5) have now completed the USA South regular season with a 9-0 record and will take a 64-match winning streak versus league opponents into next weekend's conference tournament. As the top seed, Wesleyan receives a bye in the first round will take on the winner of #4 Piedmont/#5 LaGrange at 10:00am on Saturday. All matches will be played at the Slick Family Foundation Tennis Complex on the NCWC campus.