Kohler, Wis. - The number one seeded Illinois Tech men's tennis team found themselves in a 2-1 hole after the completion of the doubles competion in their NACC Championship Final match versus number two seed Concordia Wisconsin Sunday afternoon. The deficit only served to galvanize the play of the Scarlet Hawks, however, as they won the first four completed singles matches to defeat the Falcons 5-2, earning their third consecutive NACC Tournament Championship in the process. The win secures the Scarlet Hawks the automatic conference qualifier into the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championships that begin play on May 12th. The Hawks improved their overall record to 11-8. The Falcons finished the season at 10-10 overall.
Head Coach Kris Powell, who took over the program in August, was able to continue the recent success of the men's program. The Scarlet Hawks have now won the last three regular season and post-season titles in NACC play.
The match did not start in the Hawks favor, however. The Falcons won the number one and two doubles matches, with their number one team of Logan Snyder and Landon Sather defeating Alann Torres and Jordan Lauer 8-6, while the Falcons' number two pair of Tim Peters and Peter Naylor downed Davis Housman and Huy Ngo 8-4. The Scarlet Hawks were able to salvage the number three doubles match, however, with Pablo Marroquin Borque and Nabil Fawaz defeating Joshua Klement and Isaac Bruins 8-4. The lone doubles match victory kept the score within one win.
From there, the Hawks ramped up their performance in singles play. Number two singles Housman defeated Sather 6-2, 7-5. Number three singles Fawaz defeated Peters 6-3, 6-4. Number four Marroquin Borque won his match versus Klement 6-3, 6-4. In the number five singles match, Illinois Tech's Lauer defeated Naylor 6-0, 6-3. The four singles victories secured the necessary five match wins needed to claim the conference title. The number one singles match of Torres versus Snyder, and the number six singles match of Ngo versus Nathan Bilan were left unfinished once the Scarlet Hawks achieved the five win total.
The Scarlet Hawks will now await the official announcement from the NCAA on Monday, May 9th regarding their first round region, seeding and opponent. First round play is expected to start on May 12th.