(Story courtesy of Trinity University)
MOBILE, Ala. - Trinity's Aaron Skinner earned a 1-6, 7-6, 7-6 (7-5) victory to win the ITA Small College National Singles Championship on Saturday morning.
Skinner earned the win over North Carolina Wesleyan's Robert Kjellberg in the final. Kjellberg came out on fire in the first set, then was serving 6-5 for the match in the second. Skinner broke serve to stay alive, then forced a deciding set for the title.
In the final set, both players went back and forth throughout, starting with a 3-3 tie midway through. The players traded games all the way to 6-6 to set up a tiebreaker to determine the champion. Kjellberg survived two match points, before Skinner finally finished off the victory.
Skinner won four matches at the tournament, which started with his play-in match on Wednesday afternoon. He won 6-3, 6-4 to reach the main draw, which put him up against the singles top seed, Adam Putterman of Washington (MO) University.
In Thursday's match against Putterman, Skinner won 7-5, 6-4 to reach the semifinals. He took on fourth seed Adam Hersh of Johns Hopkins University in the semifinals, winning 6-3, 6-1 to reach today's title match.
Skinner's national title is Trinity's first ITA Singles Championship since Jamie Broach won in 1997, and is the second ITA National Championship under Head Coach Russell McMindes.
Coach McMindes also led the doubles team of Bobby Cocanougher and Cory Kowal to the 2010 ITA National Doubles Championship. McMindes is in his fourth season as the Tiger head coach.
