The journey continues on for tennis as the FGCU men's tennis team (14-8) pulled away with a 4-2 win in the finals of the A-SUN Conference Championship Tournament. With the win, not only are the Eagles 7-10 against the Ospreys and were named A-SUN Conference Champions, but they have also punched their ticket to the 2019 NCAA Men's Tennis National Championship for the third time in program history.
"This was an unbelievable match that fit in so perfect with an unbelievable season," head coach CJ Weber said. "UNF played really well today. If we weren't ready even just a little bit, they would be celebrating right now. These guys fought so hard from start to finish and nevre got discouraged, despite being down the majority of the match. We had to work extremely hard for the match to turn; but once it turned, we took hold and strangled the match from there. We had a death grip on that thing. It was another great team effort, and very well deserved for this bunch. I'm so happy and so proud of them."
Beginning with the doubles, the senior duo of Felipe Escobar and Mateo Ruiz (11-5) began with a 6-4 win at #1 doubles over sophomore Nilo Duarte and senior Sahil Deshmukh, but the Ospreys would respond back by taking #2 doubles as junior Marcelo Tebet and sophomore Juan Montes (8-2) fell 6-4 to sophomore Jorge Nunez and junior Federico Nani before the junior duo of Feliksas Sakalauskas and Felipe Ramirez (10-4) fell 6-4 to freshman Dominik Barton and senior Tilli Von Winning at #3 doubles, thus UNF claiming the doubles point.
Heading into single, Montes (8-10) would be the first to fall from a 6-4 pair decision to Deshmukh at #1 singles, but the Eagles would get on the board as Ramirez (10-8) fought with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Barton at #2 singles.
The Eagles would then tie the score at 2-2 as senior Javier Fernandez (14-4) put in his 94th career win over Nani by a score of 6-4, 6-3 at #6 singles. The Eagles would then take the lead as Escobar (9-9) defeated Von Winning 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 at #3 singles.
It all came down to two matches: Tebet vs Duarte and Sakalauskas vs Nunez. Both matches were entering into their third sets. Tebet (12-5) would be the one to clinch the final point against Duarte as he won 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 while Sakalauskas (13-7) went unfinished despite being down 1-6, 7-5, 3-5.
The A-SUN All-Tournament was announced shortly after. For UNF, it was Deshmukh while for FGCU, it was Montes and Tebet. Tebet was also named A-SUN All-Tournament MVP.
Up Next:
The Eagles will await who they will play in the first round from the NCAA Selection Show, which will air at 6 p.m. Monday, April 29 and will broadcast live on NCAA.com. Details about a watch party for the Green and Blue will follow.
The opening two rounds will be held at host sites May 3-5, with super regional competition slated for the following weekend (May 10-11). The 2019 NCAA Championship will be contested May 16-19 at the USTA National Campus' Collegiate Center in Orlando.
Twitter Link of final match point: https://twitter.com/ASUNTennis/status/1120012204156379136
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