by Eric Willuweit
Chicago, Ill. - The Illinois Tech men's tennis team found themselves in an early battle with Concordia Wisconsin during doubles play Thursday night at the XS Tennis Center, but when the evening finally concluded the Scarlet Hawks came out on top 5-0 in their Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) semifinal match with the Falcons. With the victory, the Scarlet Hawks advance to the conference championship match Sunday morning against MSOE.
"The guys played well" said Head Coach Kris Powell. "We had a rocky start in the number one doubles, but they managed to make adjustments and come back. We then took that momentum into singles, giving us the win" said Powell.
The Scarlet Hawks will be looking to secure their fourth consecutive NACC conference championship, having won the post-season title in 2019, 2021 and 2022. The tournament was cancelled during the 2020 season due to the pandemic. The winner of the conference championship gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships. Last spring, the Scarlet Hawks defeated Greenville before falling to the eventual champions, University of Chicago.
Standing in their way will be an MSOE team that gave the Scarlet Hawks trouble during the regular season, as the Raiders came to Chicago and defeated the Hawks 6-3. Doubles play turned out to be the decided factor in the match, as the Raiders swept all three doubles matches. Coach Powell knows the Hawks will need to be better in that area if they want to capture a fourth straight conference title.
"This Sunday we know what we have to do and we have to have high energy, a high first-serve percentage and consistent returns in doubles" said Powell. "MSOE has great doubles teams this year. We have to remain focused and gritty from the start to give ourselves a chance at victory" concluded Powell.
Doubles Play (Illinois Tech 3 - Concordia Wisconsin 0)
The Scarlet Hawks started out strong in doubles play, with the number three pairing of Rodrigo Casado and Davis Housman winning the first doubles match 8-1 versus CUW's Nathan Bilan and Jordan Wright. The Hawks second pairing of Huy Ngo and Nabil Fawaz took the next doubles match by the same 8-1 score against Concordia's Dylan Nadolski and Isaac Bruins. The number one doubles match was a very different story however, as the Falcons pairing of Landon Sather and Joshua Klement had the upper hand over Illinois Tech's Alann Torres and Jordan Lauer early in the match. Torres and Lauer were eventually able to recover and mount the comeback, eventually defeating the CUW pair 8-7 with a 7-3 tie-breaker.
Singles Play (Illinois Tech 2 - Concordia Wisconsin 0)
Danial Zindani claimed the first singles match victory, as he defeated Concordia's Zachary Miller in the number six singles match 6-1, 6-1. The Zindani/Miller match actually started while the number one doubles match was going into multiple games. Housman was the next Scarlet Hawk to the finish line in singles play, as he defeated Bruins in the number four singles match 6-1, 6-2, giving the Scarlet Hawks the fifth match victory needed to win the overall match. Torres was tied with Sather 1-1 in sets when play finished in their number one singles match, with Torres winning set one 6-4 while Sather took set two, 6-0. Fawaz won set one in his number two singles match 6-1, and was tied with Klement in set two at 4-4 when play was halted. Lauer was up 6-3, 3-1 in his number three singles match against Nadolski, and Ngo won set one 6-3 and was tied 3-3 against Bilan in their number five singles match when play was completed.
Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks will travel to Jackson, Wisconsin on Sunday morning for a 10:00 AM CT match against MSOE with the NACC conference championship and an automatic NCAA Division III Championships automatic bid on the line.