Edwardsville, IL – Men's Tennis advanced past Westminster in the semifinals and knocked out Greenville 5-0 in the conference championship on Saturday.
A look at the matches:
The Panthers blew past Westminster, who only had four players available for the match. Postseason matches are played to completion, meaning that play ends as soon as one team reaches five wins. The Panthers got two quick doubles wins (Westminster forfeited #3 doubles and #5/#6 singles) to advance to the final.
Greenville came ready to play as always, but the team answered back. Daniel Gomez and Wyatt dominated at #1 doubles in an 8-2 win. Rafter Sprague and William Johnson were tangled in a match far more intense than the 8-3 score showed and played some of their best tennis of the season to get a huge win at #3. Juan Segovia and Drew Funke served for their match, up 7-6 at #2. Funke hammered his first serves in to get the hold and give the team a commanding 3-0 lead.
The race was on in singles to see who could clinch the title. Funke was locked in a battle at #4, dropping the first set 7-6 (2) but up a break 4-2 in the second. Gomez finished first and it came down to a tight race between Dale at #2 and Segovia at #3. Dale lagged a few games behind for most of the way but closed the gap, going up 5-1, 40-0 and serving for the match in the second set. But Segovia barely beat him to it, holding serve up 5-4 in the second set to clinch the championship.
Good to know:
The Panthers have now won seven straight SLIAC Championships, the second longest streak in conference history behind the nine straight won by Principia from 1991-99. This is also Principia's first win in the SLIAC final without dropping an individual match.
Up next:
The team awaits the selection committee's announcement of the national tournament field, to be revealed on May 10th. Individually, Daniel Gomez also has a chance to make nationals for singles, as well as he and Wyatt Dale in doubles.
