DALLAS, Texas – In what turned out to be the tightest championship match since 2011, Trinity University held off Southwestern University to earn a remarkable 14th-staright Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Championship Sunday evening on the Ruth & Ken Altshuler indoor courts at the Brookshire Family Pavilion on the campus of SMU. Official Website | Postmatch Interview | Photo Album
The Tigers secured a 5-3 victory over the Pirates to capture the program’s 28th overall men’s tennis title. The three points earned by Southwestern is the most by any program during this current streak of 14-straight titles since 2011 when TU edged out former member DePauw University, 6-3.
No conference program has won more SCAC titles than Trinity men's tennis as the Tigers have participated in all 32 men's tennis finals, winning all but four of them. Southwestern has been in the last nine 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 secured the first point of the day after Bernardo Clemente and Parth Patel posted an 8-6 win at the No. 2 line. Trinity pushed back winning at line three as Aashish Dhanani and Conor Kaczmarczyk produced an 8-5 win. The final doubles point came down to a tiebreak as the first-year duo of Jared Perry and Ethan Flores at the first line spot won 8-7 (7-2) to give the Tigers a 2-1 advantage going into singles play.
The Pirates regrouped going into singles play and captured the first set in four of the six matches poised to make a run at the Tigers, however it was Trinity’s Dhanani that struck for the first point in singles following a 6-1, 6-1 win over Southwestern’s Clemente at line five.
Southwestern pulled back within one, 3-2, after Ryan Flanagan put together an impressive 6-1, 6-3 victory at the No. 6 line. Once again Trinty regained momentum when senior Rob Chang earned a key victory at the No. 3 line, 6-4, 6-2 putting Trinity at the doorstep of conference.
As just three matches remained on court, the tension mounted and Southwestern senior Travis Rafferty provided fireworks, bringing the Pirates back to within one, 4-3, after earning a win at the four line, 6-4, 6-4.
Trinity’s Perry, playing in his first SCAC Championship slammed the door shut for the Tigers and clinched the match with an impressive come from behind win at the top singles line, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
As conference champion, Trinity (16-8) 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 on Monday, May 6.
Southwestern falls to 14-9 and will have to await word of an at-large berth.
First, Second and Third round play will be held on various campus sites May 9-12 with the 2024 NCAA III tournament's final site at the Dwight Davis Memorial Tennis Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Once at the finals site, quarterfinal, semifinal and championship play will occur from May 20-28.
#7 TRINITY UNIVERSITY 5, #37 SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 3
April 28, 2024 Dallas, Texas (SMU Indoor Courts)
| Singles competition |
| 1. Jared Perry (TU) def. Oscar Roy (SU) 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 |
| 2. Connor Whittington (TU) vs. Anton Borovik (SU) 2-6, 6-2, 2-3, unfinished |
| 3. Rob Chang (TU) def. Joseph Snyman (SU) 6-4, 6-2 |
| 4. Travis Rafferty (SU) def. Ethan Flores (TU) 6-4, 6-4 |
| 5. Aashish Dhanani (TU) def. Bernado Clemente (SU) 6-1, 6-1 |
| 6. Ryan Flanagan (SU) def. Ivan Nikolovski (TU) 6-1, 6-3 |
| Doubles competition |
| 1. Jared Perry/Ethan Flores (TU) def. Oscar Roy/Joseph Snyman (SU) 8-7 (7-2) |
| 2. Bernado Clemente/Parth Patel (SU) def. Dalton Locke/Rob Chang (TU) 8-6 |
| 3. Aashish Dhanani/Conor Kaczmarczyk (TU) def. Travis Rafferty/Jared Burton (SU) 8-5 |
| Match Notes |
| Southwestern University 16-8; National ranking #37 |
| Trinity University 16-7; National ranking #7; Regional ranking #2 |
| Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (,5,6,3,4,1) |
| 2024 SCAC Championship Match |
UP NEXT
The NCAA will announce team selections May 6, and the first three rounds will be played May 9-12. The team quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship, along with the singles and doubles tournament, are set for May 20-28 at the Dwight Davis Memorial Tennis Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
