ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The nationally 35th-ranked McKendree University men's tennis team secured its spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament championship match here Saturday afternoon following the Bearcats 4-0 win over 73rd-ranked Mayville University in the GLVC Tournament semifinal at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center.
Saturday's win puts the Bearcats into its first-ever GLVC Tournament championship match as they face 12th-ranked University of Indianapolis in a 9 a.m. match on Sunday, May 1. The Greyhounds reached the championship match with a 4-1 semifinal win Saturday over 56th-ranked Southwest Baptist.
With Saturday's win, McKendree improved to 19-2 overall on the season, while Maryville concludes its season with a 9-8 overall record. McKendree is now 3-8 all-time in the GLVC Tournament and Saturday's win was the program's first-ever in the tournament semifinals.
The winner of the GLVC Tournament will earn the league's automatic bid into the 2022 NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Championships.
Saturday's match began with doubles as the two teams split the first two doubles matches, before the Bearcats secured the doubles point with a win at the No. 1 spot.
McKendree won the first doubles match on Saturday as the No. 3 team of sophomore
Julappagari Anurag Reddy (Dubai, UAE/CBSE School Nationals) and freshman
David Leon Mantilla (Lima, Peru/Colegio Parroquial Santa Rosa de Lima) defeated Maryville's No. 3 team of Erik Aarthun and Jack Triggs-Beuttell, 6-1.
Maryville would earn a 6-4 win at the No. 2 spot as Mario Aleksic and Sebastian Trigosso defeated sophomore
Subash Paramasivam (Chennai, Tamil India/Saraswathi Kendra) and senior
Vishnu Prasad (Chennai, India/National Institute of Open Schooling), 6-4.
With Maryville's win at the No. 2 spot, the doubles point came down to the No. 1 spot match-up between junior
Leonardo Frederico (Tijucas-Santa Cantrina, Brazil/Unicesumar) and graduate student
Boriss Kamdem (Ghent, Belgium/University of Tulsa) and Maryville's top team of Tom Schmitt and Yann Frezouls.
At No. 1 doubles, Frederico and Kamdem, who are ranked 27th in ITA Doubles player rankings, would pick up a 6-4 win over Schmitt and Frezouls to secure the doubles point for the Bearcats.
Meanwhile, in singles play, the Bearcats picked up wins at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles to earn the match victory and advance to the championship match for the first time in school history.
Kamdem, who is ranked 54th in Division II singles, gave the Bearcats a 2-0 lead in the match following his 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 2 spot over Beuttell-Triggs. Kamdem improved to 17-5 on the season in singles on the season.
Paramasivam would give the Bearcats a 3-0 lead in the match following his 6-2, 6-3 win at the No. 3 spot over Jose Hernandez. Paramasivam improved to 12-8 on the season in singles.
Reddy would seal the Bearcats' match win following his 6-2, 6-3 win at the No. 4 spot over Trigosso. Reddy improved his record to 17-4 on the season.
The other three matches at No. 1, No. 5 and No. 6 singles were still in progress when Reddy won his match at the No. 4 spot. McKendree had won the first set in all three of those singles matches and was leading in the second set in two of the three when Reddy sealed the match win.
