(Story courtesy of Trinity University Athletics Communications)
ABILENE, Texas – The Trinity University men's tennis team won both the singles and doubles titles at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Championships on Sunday, hosted by Hardin-Simmons University.
The Tigers swept the titles for the first time since 2021, which was also just the second time since 2015 that Trinity won both. This year's titles featured all newcomers to the team: two first-year players and a transfer that is in his first semester at Trinity.
The singles finals opened the day at 9:00 a.m., but the championship match turned out to be an epic battle between Trinity's Ryan Warren and No. 3 seed Steven Scholz from Concordia University (TX). Scholz struck first with a 6-4 victory in the opening set to take the early advantage. Warren never gave up, though, and the two players went to a tiebreaker after the second set was tied 6-6. The tiebreaker is what made it an instant classic as Warren forced a third set with his 22-20 victory. The third set was also close, but Warren completed his comeback with a 7-5 win to take the title.
Doubles semifinals began late-morning on Sunday and featured three different Tiger teams. The eighth-seeded team of sophomore Kishan Kersten and first-year Rocco Mendez faced off against teammates Rob Chang, a grad student, and senior Eric Liao. The younger team prevailed 8-4 to move on to the finals later in the day. Junior Conor Kaczmarczyk and sophomore Ethan Flores, the No. 7 seeds in the tournament, took on No. 3 seeds Oscar Roy and Ashton Ellis from Southwestern University (TX). The Tigers fell short of making it an all-Trinity final with an 8-3 loss, though, as the Southwestern team moved on.
The championship match between Roy/Ellis and Kersten/Mendez was another outstanding matchup that went to a third set. Roy/Ellis won the opening set 7-6 after edging the Tiger team of Kersten/Mendez with a 7-5 tiebreaker. The Trinity duo battled back with a 6-4 win in the second, setting up a super tiebreaker to decide this year's champions. Kersten and Mendez were up to that challenge with a 10-6 victory to take the title.
Up Next
All three Tigers have qualified for the ITA Cup after winning this weekend's championships. The ITA Cup will be held October 10-13 in Rome, Ga. The last time Trinity made it to the finals of the ITA Cup was 2016 for doubles, as Wilson Lambeth and Mat Tyer finished as runners-up. The last Tiger player to make the singles finals was when Aaron Skinner won the Championship in 2012.
