Men's Tennis Falls to Spartans in NCAA Tournament
5/9/2007
Men's Tennis Falls to Spartans in NCAA Tournament
Altamonte Springs, FL - The Concordia College men's tennis team was defeated by the Spartans of the University of South Carolina-Upstate 5-2 today in the NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Championship Round of 16 in Altamonte Springs, FL. The Clippers were making their third straight appearence in the NCAA Round of 16.
Concordia won the doubles portion of the match 2-1. Juniors Vlad Malkin (Moscow, Russia) and Kirill Azovtsev (St. Petersburg, Russia) were defeated by Sandy Franz and Javier Tori at #2 doubles by an 8-4 score. The #3 doubles team of sophomore Josep Molet (Sabadell, Spain) and freshman Henning Ruenz (Muelheim-Kaerlich) tied the score at 1-1 with an 8-5 victory over S. Gonzales-Orbegoso and Leandro Osorio. The Clippers would conclude doubles play with junior Rodrigo Teixeira (Vitoria, Brazil) and freshman Alex Grubin (Serbia) topping Stefan Dumitrescu and Renzo Airaldi 8-5.
With a 2-1 advantage heading into singles play, the Clipperss needed just 3 of the remaining 6 matches to reach 5 points and get the win. However, the Spartans would show why they are the 4th ranked team in the nation with 4 straigh singles wins and claim the 5-2 victory. The first match to finish was Kirill Azovtsev at #4 singles, as the junior fell to S. Gonzales-Orbegoso 7-5, 6-1. Rodrigo Teixeira lost a very close 6-4, 6-4 decision to Javier Tori at #3 singles. Freshman Nik Boerger (Muenster, Germany), playing at #6 singles, also lost a close match to Jack Roux by a score of 7-5, 6-4. SC-Upstate would complete the comback with a 6-2, 7-5 win by Sandy Franz over Josep Molet at #2 singles.
The Clippers finish their best season in NCAA Division II Men's Tennis, with a National Ranking of 17th and 1st in the East Region. The Clippers had won 13 straight matches before ending their season in the NCAA Round of 16. Concordia finishes the 2007 season with an 18-3 record overall.
