GEORGETOWN, Texas -- Eighth-ranked Trinity University took a 2-1 lead after doubles and never looked back, delivering the program's 13th straight and 27th overall Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Men's Tennis title with a 5-2 victory over 18th-ranked Southwestern University Sunday afternoon at the Marvin D. Henderson Sr. Tennis Courts on the campus of Southwestern. Official Website | Postmatch Interview | Photo Album
No conference program has won more SCAC titles than Trinity men's tennis as the Tigers have participated in all 31 men's tennis finals, winning all but four of them. Southwestern has been in the last eight finals but will have to wait at least one more year for its breakthrough moment.
Sunday's championship opened with doubles play and the matches were hotly contested up and down the line. Southwestern jumped out to early leads at both the No. 1 and No. 2 lines and appeared poised to at least take a 2-1 lead, not unlike their April 14 regular season match when the Pirates used an early 2-1 doubles margin to jumpstart a 5-4 victory over the Tigers.
But after TU's Robert Chang and Dalton Locke closed out their No. 3 doubles match 8-5, the Tigers' Alessio Azzalini and Rafa Candelas Ruiz ralled from a 6-4 deficit to earn a 8-7 (5) victory in a tiebreaker to give Trinity an early 2-0 lead. Southwestern's Oscar Roy and Ashton Ellis held strong at the No. 1 line and kept the Pirates in the match with an 8-6 lead over Hao Nguyen and Eric Liao to cut Trinity's lead in half heading into singles action.
Azzalini and Nguyen quickly dispatched the Pirates' Bernardo Clemente and Steven Tibbetts and No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, with Azzalini taking a 6-1, 6-0 victory and Nguyen following with a 6-1, 6-2 margin. Southwestern's Roy picked up a point for the Pirates with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Liao at No. 3 singles, but just minutes later the Tigers' Robert Chang provided the fifth and clinching point for Trinity with his 7-5, 6-1 win over the Pirates' Anton Borovik.
As conference champion, Trinity (16-5) earns the SCAC's automatic qualification for the NCAA III National Championship tournament, and will await further instruction from the NCAA for regional competition when brackets are announced tomorrow. First, Second and Third round play will be held on various campus sites from May 5-7 with the 2023 NCAA III tournament's final site at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida. Once at the finals site, quarterfinal, semifinal and championship play will occur from May 13-16.
Southwestern falls to 18-6 and will have to await word of an at-large berth.
#8 TRINITY UNIVERSITY 5, #18 SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 2
April 30, 2023 at Georgetown, Texas (Marvin D. Henderson Sr. Tennis Courts)
| Singles competition |
| 1. Hao Nguyen (TU) def. Bernardo Clemente (SU) 6-1, 6-2 |
| 2. Alessio Azzalini (TU) def. Steven Tibbetts (SU) 6-1, 6-0 |
| 3. Oscar Roy (SU) def. Eric Liao (TU) 7-5, 6-3 |
| 4. Ashton Ellis (SU) vs. Connor Whittington (TU) 2-6, 6-3, unfinished |
| 5. Ryan Flanagan (SU) vs. Rafa Candelas Ruiz (TU) 5-7, 2-4, unfinished |
| 6. Robert Chang (TU) def. Anton Borovik (SU) 7-5, 6-1 |
| Doubles competition |
| 1. Oscar Roy/Ashton Ellis (SU) def. Hao Nguyen/Eric Liao (TU) 8-6 |
| 2. Alessio Azzalini/Rafa Candelas Ruiz (TU) def. Bernardo Clemente/Parth Patel (SU) 8-7 (7-5) |
| 3. Robert Chang/Dalton Locke (TU) def. Jared Burton/Steven Tibbetts (SU) 8-5 |
| Match Notes |
| Trinity University 16-5; National ranking #8; Regional ranking #2 |
| Southwestern University 18-6; National ranking #18; Regional ranking #3 |
| Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (2,1,3,6) |
| SCAC Championship Match. |
UP NEXT
The NCAA will announce team selections May 1, and the first three rounds will be played May 5-7. The team quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship, along with the singles and doubles tournament, are set for May 13-22 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando,
