ST. LOUIS, MO – Principia, Greenville, Webster, and Westminster joined the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference for tennis in 2023 to ensure the conference champion would receive an automatic bid to the NCAA National Tournament. These four former SLIAC tennis programs became the UMAC South Division, while the six original UMAC programs became the UMAC North Division. After the women played on Friday, the men of the UMAC South held their men's postseason tournament on Saturday to determine a division champion as well as which two teams would qualify for next weekend's UMAC Tournament in Minneapolis.
The day began with the semifinal matches held at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park. Cold and windy conditions made play more difficult than usual as all four teams battled the elements as well as each other. As the second seed after regular season play, Principia faced off against the third seeded Webster Gorloks. The postseason matches are played to decision, so the Panthers just needed to earn five points to win the match. The Principia men took #2 and #3 doubles to move into singles up 2-1. The Panthers continued to play steady tennis, and quick wins by
Ernesto Botero at #3,
Álvaro Martín Moliz at #5, and
William Johnson at #6 singles clinched a berth into the Minneapolis Final Four.
After Greenville easily defeated Westminster in the other semifinal, the two Panther squads squared off to determine seeding for the Final Four. The division championship match was moved indoors to the YMCA Meyer Center in Edwardsville in order to get out of the cold and wind. Just like in their regular season meeting, Principia's senior duo (
Juan Segovia and
William Johnson) was able to win #2 doubles. Greenville took #1 and #3 doubles to give them an edge heading into singles.
The top four singles matches took place first, and all four were very tightly contested. Greenville was able to win #1 and #2 in straight sets. After dropping his first set 6-2 at #3,
Ernesto Botero turned things around to win the next two sets 6-4, 6-1 for an impressive comeback victory. Unfortunately, Principia had the opposite fate at #4 singles.
Rafter Sprague played a great match – much improved from his first singles matchup with Greenville this season – but after a first set win in a tiebreaker, he was unable to hold off Kent from coming back to clinch Greenville's fifth point for the division championship.
Both Panther teams will now head to Minneapolis for the UMAC Tournament. Both semifinal matches will take at the Baseline Tennis Center on Friday, April 28 at 4 pm CT. As the South's #2 seed, Principia will face the North's #1 seed, University of Wisconsin-Superior. If they win, the Panthers would then take on the winner of Greenville and Northwestern in championship on Saturday at 1 pm CT.
