ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Mission Accomplished!!
The nationally 35th-ranked McKendree University made history here Sunday at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park as the Bearcats took home its first-ever Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship in men's tennis following a hard-fought, intense 4-3 victory over 12th-ranked University of Indianapolis in the championship match of the 2022 GLVC Tennis Championships.
"It is an honor to work with these young men and see what's possible when you have a vision, believe in the vision, and execute the vision. Every student-athlete in our program deserves true success," McKendree head coach
René Vidal said following his team's victory over the Greyhounds. "Earning the 2022 GLVC Championship is an important milestone in our larger quest to be the best team in the country. Short-term thinking is not good in a marathon."
Following the conclusion of the tournament, Vidal was named the 2022 GLVC Coach of the Year after leading the Bearcats to the GLVC Championship.
Sunday's win earns the Bearcats the GLVC's automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA Men's Tennis Championships. The NCAA will unveil the 48-team field on Tuesday, May 3 online at
www.ncaa.com at 7:30 p.m. with the men's regional tournaments being held on May 9-10 at 16 campus sites around the country. Each region will send two teams to the 2022 NCAA National Championship finals, which are scheduled for May 17-22 at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs, Fla.
With the victory, McKendree extended their win streak to eight straight wins and improved their record to 20-2 on the season, while UIndy fell to 18-4 on the season. The 20 wins are now tied for the most in school history as the 2009-10 and 2010-11 teams each won 20 matches as the 2009-10 team went 20-5 and the 2010-11 teams went 20-3. In addition, the Bearcats went 12-1 this season against GLVC foes with the only loss being a 5-2 setback at home in the regular season against UIndy. McKendree's other loss this season (5-2) came in Kansas City, Mo., against then 25th-ranked Northwest Missouri State.
"Winning the championship means everything we have been doing paid off. The guys have been altogether and since the beginning we've had this goal to win the GLVC Conference title and now we have won the title," said Frederico, who was named the GLVC Player of the Year on Friday. "I am very happy and proud of all my guys. We played very hard, fought to the end and got the win. I came here to make history and we are making history."
UIndy got off to a strong start in Sunday's championship match as they were leading on all three doubles matches when the 'Hounds sealed the doubles point.
UIndy's No. 2 team would finish first as Edgar Destouet and Yoann Viel defeated sophomore
Subash Paramasivam (Chennai, Tamil India/Saraswathi Kendra) and senior
Vishnu Prasad (Chennai, India/National Institute of Open Schooling), 6-4 and then UIndy's No. 1 team of Nikolaj Talimaa and Faveri clinched at the No. 1 spot as they defeated McKendree's 27th-ranked duo of junior
Leonardo Frederico (Tijucas-Santa Cantrina, Brazil/Unicesumar) and graduate student
Boriss Kamdem (Ghent, Belgium/University of Tulsa), 6-4.
At the No. 3 spot, UIndy's duo of Jason Gerweck and Pedro Franca was leading 5-4 over McKendree's duo of Reddy and and freshman
David Leon Mantilla (Lima, Peru/Colegio Parroquial Santa Rosa de Lima) when UIndy clinched the doubles point.
The Greyhounds would take a 2-0 lead in the match following their straight set win at No. 3 singles by Viel over Paramasivam, 6-3, 6-3.
No. 52 ranked Frederico would give the Bearcats their first win of the match as he picked up an impressive win over Destouet in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0. The match-up was between the GLVC Player of the Year (Frederico) and the GLVC Freshman of the Year (Destouet). Frederico won his 11th consecutive singles match and improved to 19-4 on the season and went 10-0 on the season against GLVC singles opponents.
"I played very solid today from the beginning. I didn't give him a chance and was very important," Frederico added about his win at No. 1 singles.
The Bearcats tie the match at 2-2 following a 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 win at the No. 5 spot by Prasad over Gerweck. With his win, Prasad won his seventh straight match and improved his record to 9-1 on the season.
UIndy would retake the lead at 3-2 after a win in a third-set tiebreaker by Franca at the No. 6 spot over Mantilla. Franca won the first set, 6-4, but Mantilla would rally to post a 6-3 win in the second set to force a third set. In the third set, Mantilla led 5-4, before Franca would win two of the next three games to force a tiebreaker. Franca dominated the tiebreaker as he won 7-2 to give UIndy its third point of the match
Right after Franca sealed his win at the No. 6 spot, Kamdem, who is ranked 54th in ITA Division II singles, would help the Bearcats tie the match at 3 following his win in three sets at the No. 2 spot over Talimaa, who is 24th in ITA Division II singles. Kamdem would win, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
Kamdem's win would set up Reddy's match at No. 4 singles to determine the match winner. At the No. 4 spot, Faveri won the first 6-4, but Reddy battled back to post a 6-4 win in the second set to set-up a third and final set. The two players went back-and-fourth as Reddy held an early lead, but Faveri would take a 4-3 lead in the match. Reddy would then win the next game to tie things up. After the two players split the next two games, Reddy would close out the third set by winning the final two games to seal his 7-5 win and secure the GLVC title for the Bearcats.
"I had very good confidence in Anurag (Reddy). He is an amazing guy and works hard every day and today that hard work paid off in a big way," Frederico added.
