Kansas City
Oral Roberts
CHAMPIONS! 'Roos Top Oral Roberts To Claim Summit League Men's Tennis Title
4/25/2009 3:45:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Fort Wayne, Ind. -- The UMKC men's tennis team claimed its third Summit League Championship in school history with a gut-wrenching 4-2 victory over No. 1 seed Oral Roberts on Saturday morning at the Dr. Rudy and Rhonda Kachmann Tennis Center in Fort Wayne. The Kangaroos won the doubles point and picked up singles wins at the two, three and four positions to tie the school record for wins in a season with 14, and more importantly, qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000.
UMKC opened doubles play by securing wins at both the one and two lines. Erwin Quintanilla and Dennis Schwarz opened with an easy 8-2 victory at the two line over Dario Beslic and Andre Savin. Patrick Smith and Bret Berryman then picked up their ninth victory of the season with an 8-4 win at the top position over Oleksandr Kotsuik and Dmitry Suslov, 8-4.
The 'Roos were also in a heated battle at the No. 3 position, as Serge Ristivojevic and Gustavo Guerin were tied at 5-5 with Alex Dargel and Peter Sullivan.
Once the action turned to singles, Smith put the 'Roos up 2-0 with his straight set win over Suslov at the two line. The Germany native ousted Suslov by the score of 6-4, 6-3 to pick up his 14th singles win of the season. The figure is tied for the second most wins in a single season in school history behind Divan Coetzee's 15 victories in 2000.
The Golden Eagles quickly tallied their first point at the top singles position courtesy of a win by Kotsuik, The Summit League Player of the Year. Kotsuik topped UMKC's Berryman by the score of 6-2, 6-3. ORU then evened the team tally at two when Savin topped Schwarz, 6-4, 6-4, at the No. 5 singles position.
The Kangaroos recaptured the momentum when Guerin picked up a straight set win at the four line. The Brazil native topped Beslic by the scores of 6-4, 6-2 to tally his 12th singles victory of the season. The total is tied for the seventh most in a single season in UMKC history.
UMKC then clinched the league title with a three-set thriller at the at the No. 3 position. Ristivojevic opened the match against Dargel with a 6-3 win, but the ORU senior fought back to even the match with a 6-4 win in set two. The Australia native then secured his 11th victory of the season with a 7-6 (1) tiebreak win to send the 'Roos into a raucous celebration.
The final match of the day between UMKC's Quintanilla and ORU's Matt Tansil was halted once the outcome was decided. The two players were tied at a set apiece, as Quintanilla won the first set, 7-6 (5), before Tansil claimed the second, 7-5.
UMKC's 14 wins are tied for the most in a single season in school history with the 1998 and 1999 squads. The victory is also the team's first win over Oral Roberts since the 2001-02 season.
The Kangaroos will now await word from the NCAA to determine who and where they will play in the 2009 NCAA Tournament on May 8-9. The NCAA selection announcement will air on ESPNews on Tuesday, April 28 at 4:20 p.m. (CDT).
Players Mentioned
