Score: No. 1 Keiser Seahawks 4, No. 4 Southeastern Fire 3
Records: No. 1 Keiser (2-1), No. 4 Southeastern (1-2)
Venue: Rome Tennis Center
Location: Rome, Ga.
No. 1 Keiser men's tennis closed out the ITA NAIA National Men's Team Indoor Championships with a win over No. 4 Southeastern in the third-place match on Sunday evening, 4-3. The Seahawks fell behind after doubles but rallied to wins on courts one, three, five, and six to finish the tournament with a win.
- Southeastern grabbed the first win on court three as No. 18 Pedro De La Riva and Gonzalo Ornia topped Andrew Reznik and Andrej Krajcik 6-2
- Didrik Liljekvist and Matthew Dubas had a quick response with a 6-3 win on court one over No. 6 Javier Gallego and Piero Fernandez
- Aristeidis Lafazanos and Leonardo Chiari broke for the final game and match on court two, beating Shaheed Alam and Oliver King 6-4
- Liljekvist brought the match even on court one with a dominant 6-1, 6-2 win over No. 11 Fernandez
- Dubas made it 2-1 KU with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Chiari on court five
- On court three No. 19 Felipe Rivadeneira bested De La Riva 6-1, 6-3 to put the Seahawks up 3-1
- The Fire answered back with wins on courts four and two to tie the match at 3-3
- All eyes turned to court six where a battle went on for nearly three hours between King and Lafazanos
- In the third-set tiebreaker, King was down 0-4 but won six of the next seven points before finally winning the tiebreaker 8-6
When asked about today's result, Head Coach
Ali Borhani had this to say: "Big day.
I can't take the staff enough and the players for making me look so good.
Didi (Liljekvist) had the tournament that I could ask for from a number one, winning every singles and doubles match, cheering on the boys, leading by example. For Ollie (King) as a true freshman to step in into his 3rd college match ever, at 3-3, and having to clinch, it's huge. Great tournament for us. We're excited to get back and work harder and get ready for may."
Director of Tennis
Daniel Finn on the result, "Great job by the boys today. There was every opportunity for things to go wrong with them today and the way they stepped up and competed showed a lot of heart, especially from the freshmen. Mr. Ali (Borhani) over here did a great job, keeping everybody focused as well."
Keiser will be off for a week before facing Division II Palm Beach Atlantic on Monday, February 23. First serve from the Mitch Gornto Tennis Center is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
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