Kansas City
Western Illinois
'Roos Advance To Summit League Final With 4-3 Win Over Western Illinois
4/24/2009 9:15:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Fort Wayne, Ind. -- The UMKC men's tennis team survived a Western Illinois upset bid, as it held on for a 4-3 victory to advance to Saturday's title match at The Summit League Championships in Fort Wayne, Ind. The Kangaroos won doubles point and got singles wins from the two, three and six positions to advance to their first championship match since the 2000-01 season.
UMKC opened the day by taking two of the three doubles matches to earn the first point. Bret Berryman and Patrick Smith claimed the first victory of the day when they topped Sean Ragee-Nelson and Neil Lesinski, 8-4, at the No. 1 doubles position. WIU quickly evened the tally, however, when Zach Frisch and James McGuire topped Dennis Schwarz and Erwin Quintanilla, 8-4, at the two line.
The 'Roos secured the point with a victory at the three position when Serge Ristivojevic and Gustavo Guerin topped Rodrigo Azevedo and Michael Schlid by the score of 8-5. The victory improved the pair's record to 9-1 overall and a perfect 8-0 this spring. The eight wins at the No. 3 line are tied for the third most in a single season in school history. Additionally, Guerin now has 11 total doubles victory on the year, which is tied for the fifth most in the school record books.
Once the action turned to singles, Ristivojevic picked up the team's second point with his 6-1, 6-2 win over Lesinski at the No. 3 position. The win was the Australia native's 10th overall victory this season, and it improves him to a perfect 7-0 at the three line on the year.
The Leathernecks got on the board and evened the tally at two points apiece with straight set wins at the four and five positions. Ragee-Nelson handed Guerin a 6-0, 6-3 loss at the four line before Mandela Shepard topped Schwarz, 6-4, 6-3, at the five line.
UMKC then regained the advantage courtesy of a Quintanilla victory at the No. 6 position. The Bolivia native topped McGuire by the score of 6-4, 6-3.
The action continued to be tight as Frisch once again evened the match with his victory at the one line over Berryman. Frisch opened play with a 6-3 win in the opening set before securing the victory in a 7-6 (1) tiebreaker to square the team match at three all.
Western Illinois was in an excellent position to pull the upset and take the match at the No. 2 position as Francisco Ortiz opened play against Smith with a 7-6 (5) victory in the first set. The UMKC junior, however, rallied for a 6-4 win in set two. Smith then picked up his 12th straight victory (both singles and doubles) with a 6-2 win in the decisive third set to send the 'Roos onto Saturday's championship match.
The victory was Smith's 13th win of the season, which is tied for the fourth most in a single season in school history. The win was also the Germany native's 12th at the No. 2 position on the year, which is a new UMKC school record.
Overall, the match victory was the team's 13th this season. The total is the third most in a single season in school history behind the 14 wins that were posted in the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.
UMKC (13-6) will face off against No. 1 seeded Oral Roberts on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. at the Dr. Rudy and Rhonda Kachmann Tennis Center. The Golden Eagles advanced to their 10th straight finals appearance with a 4-0 win over host IPFW on Friday morning.
Players Mentioned
