ROCK HILL, SC – The Winthrop men's tennis season came to a disappointing end as the Eagles  fell to  No. 64 ranked and No. 2 seed Radford 4-3 in the Big SouthConference Championship final on Saturday afternoon at the Memorial Courts.

The Eagles close out their 2011 season with a record of 16-6, as Radford advances to the NCAA Tournament with a record of 22-3 overall.

Winthrop got off to a slow start as they were unable to get the doubles point. In No. 1 doubles, Winthrop's Sergey Belov and Liran Levy were knocked off by RU's Ivan Salec and Thomas Dehaen 8-6. At the No. 2 spot, Winthrop's Guy Kubi and Nadav Ruppin dropped to Stijn Meulemans 8-5. Dejon Bivens and Yuta Hirokawa were ahead in their match at the No. 3 position, but did not finish their match due to Radford winning the first two matches.

The Eagles fought back in the singles round, but could not get the victory. In No. 1 singles, Belov knocked off Salec 6-4, 6-4, as Levy continued his winning ways in No. 3 singles by taking down Joe Mills 6-3, 6-1. In No. 4 singles, Kubi got another singles win by bringing down Igor Ogrizek. Radford clinched the match in the No. 5 position as Meulemans defeated Ruppin 6-2, 7-5.

“We had a great season,” head coach Cid Carvalho said. “It is disappointing to lose in the championship, but I am proud of the effort. Radford was just a little better today.”

The Eagles were able to received many awards this season, including Sergey Belov's Big South Player of the Year Award and Guy Kubi's Academic Player of the Year Award.