West's Cleveland reach end of the road

ROB WEST and his Cleveland State University tennis team have fallen at the first hurdle in the NCAA Championships Division One.

The 21-year-old won gold with the Guernsey tennis side in last year's Island Games in Rhodes. He is also a tennis scholar at the Ohio institution. West's (pictured) performances over the year helped them win their conference, the Horizon League, which also booked them a first appearance in the top tennis college competition in the USA.

But it was never going to be easy for Cleveland to go further as they were pulled out of the bag to face the number two seeds, Ohio State University at the weekend. They went down 4-0.

The doubles matches were quite close with the scores 8-4 and 8-5, but Cleveland State struggled in the singles. However making the national championships was an achievement in itself.

'We put up a decent fight and it was a great experience to play against them,' said West. 'It was a learning experience to see where we need to aspire to be. All in all though we have had a phenomenal season and to play this team was the icing on the cake.'