FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.  Though 22nd-ranked North Carolina Wesleyan College earned a 7-2 USA South Athletic Conference men's tennis victory Wednesday over host Methodist University, the Monarchs were on the cusp of upsets in several of the matches.

THE ESSENTIALS
Final score: No. 22 N.C. Wesleyan def. Methodist, 7-2
Records: Methodist 10-11 (5-2 USA South), N.C. Wesleyan 19-2 (10-0)
Location: Gene Clayton Tennis Courts; Fayetteville, N.C.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• A little more than three weeks before Wednesday's match, the host Bishops rolled to a 9-0 victory over Methodist, sweeping doubles action and winning each of the six singles bouts in straight sets.
• Right from the beginning of Wednesday's match, however, things would be different than that late-March non-battle.
• N.C. Wesleyan broke in front with an 8-3 win at 3-doubles, but Wynn Johnson and Jacob Oehser erased the deficit with an equally commanding 8-3 win at the No. 2 slot.
• The Bishops had the fifth-ranked doubles tandem in the Atlantic South region -- Giannis Brokakis and Roberto Puig -- on the other side of the net at 1-doubles, but the Monarchs' Trent Harner and Coleman Baker put up a fight against the Battling Bishops duo, losing only by a service break, 8-6.
• The visitors did pick up a pair of quick wins at Nos. 5 and 6, and then clinched the match victory with Jhonny Acosta's straight-set win over Oehser at No. 4, but the remaining matches easily could have tilted either way.
• Hayden Wilfong picked up the second Methodist point, outlasting Juan Vallejo in three sets by scores of 6-1, 4-6 and 1-0 (12-10).
• At 2-singles, Harner was facing the 20th-ranked (regional) Puig and won the first set 6-2, before Puig answered with a 6-4 win in the second to square the match. The third-set super-tiebreaker was taut through the early points before Puig would string together late points for a 10-6 win.
• At No. 1, Johnson was battling the region's 19th-ranked singles player in Brokakis, trading the advantage throughout the opening set. Brokakis eeked out a 7-5 tiebreak to win the first set, 7-6, then ended the afternoon with a second-set 6-3 to finally down Johnson.

NEXT UP

• Wednesday's match was the first of a four-day consecutive match streak, which continues with the Monarchs traveling to Danville, Virginia, on Thursday when they'll play Averett University in a league match.
• The Monarchs will then host Pfeiffer University Friday afternoon, but will hit the road Saturday to face those same Falcons in a Saturday-afternoon bout.