FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.  Methodist displayed its strength on the courts of the Gene Clayton Tennis Center Wednesday afternoon as the Monarchs, ranked 15th in the ITA men's Atlantic Region, dispatched visiting William Peace University, 9-0, in a USA South Athletic Conference match.

A sweep of the doubles bouts followed by straight-set wins at Nos. 5 and 6 singles clinched the league victory.

THE ESSENTIALS
Final score: Methodist def. William Peace, 9-0
Records: Methodist 7-10 (3-1 USA South), William Peace 2-6 (1-3)
Location: Gene Clayton Tennis Center; Fayetteville, N.C.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Coleman Baker and Trent Harner set the pace for Methodist in the opening doubles match, pounding out an 8-2 victory at 1-doubles over Dylan Betancourt and Joe Stephens.
• The duo would not know that the tone they had set would be improved upon by the other two doubles tandems. Hayden Wilfong and Joshua Deutsch at No. 2 and E.J. Stolmeijer and AJ Rogers at No. 3 paired up to run off their challengers by identical 8-0 scores.
• Henry Murray added the penultimate clinching point with his 6-0, 6-0 win at 5-singles, and Spencer Kieft would provide the actual clincher, downing Tommaso Villa at No. 6 by scores of 2 and 1.
• Harner and Baker, with shutouts at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively along with Jacob Oehser (1 and 0) at 4-singles added straight-set wins.
• Betancourt put up a fight at the No. 1 spot for the visiting Pacers, taking Methodist's Wynn Johnson to a third super-tiebreak set before falling to the Monarch. Johnson won the opening set, 7-5, but Betancourt roared back with a convincing 6-2 victory in the second to square the match. Johnson turned back around, though, and rolled through the tiebreak, 10 points to 5, to seal the match.

UP NEXT

• The Monarchs will host Pfeiffer University Friday afternoon in a 3 p.m. conference match at the Clayton Tennis Center.
• William Peace heads to Rocky Mount, N.C. for a league match with host North Carolina Wesleyan College on Saturday afternoon.