EDMOND, Okla. – Fourth-year head coach
Greg Owen's #12 Southern Arkansas squad will play for a championship. The Muleriders, the No. 2 seed in the South Division, won twice on Wednesday by dismissing North Division No. 3 Newman 4-0 and outlasting North Division regular season champion and #21 Northwest Missouri 4-2 to advance to Thursday morning's MIAA-GAC Tournament title match where South Division regular season champion Ouachita awaits. First serve is set for 9 a.m. from the Edmond Tennis Center and live coverage links including up-to-date scoring and streaming are available at
www.MuleriderAthletics.com.
In the nightcap, SAU fended off the pesky Bearcats as
Yuri Gondouin toppled Simon Birgerson at No. 5 in a three-set decision of 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 to clinch the match and give the Muleriders their 19
th win of the campaign and a shot at a tournament championship.
Southern Arkansas jumped out to a 1-0 lead after doubles lines one and two worked to claim the first point.
Sander Jans and
Marko Nikoliuk, first team All-MIAA/GAC at No. 1 doubles, beat Fillippo Piranomonte and Andrea Zamurri 6-3, while honorable mention All-MIAA/GAC No. 2 doubles pair of
Stuart Rehfuss and
Sofiane Bah defeated Birgerson and Mason Meier 6-3.
Rehfuss rolled to a singles victory at No. 2. The all-league honorable mention selection eased by Franco Oliva 6-1, 6-0, to give SAU a 2-0 lead. At No. 6 it was Bah that got the best of Martin Sanchez 7-5, 6-4 to increase the Muleriders' lead to 3-1 before Gondouin put away the nationally-ranked Bearcats.
In the quarterfinal matchup against the Jets, Southern Arkansas claimed the doubles point behind a 6-3 win by Rehfuss and Bah at No. 2 doubles over NU's Gustavo Gil and Luca Penteado. The All-MIAA/GAC second team No. 3 doubles pair of
Ole Valkyser and
Matthew Tennant put away Newman's Jarrod Nowak and Kurt Bruckner Suarez 6-4 to lock up the first point of the afternoon.
In singles play, honorable mention all-league selection
Sander Jans and Rehfuss handled the action at the top two lines with Jans dismissing Bruckner Suarez 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 and Rehfuss landing Ali Mounir 6-0, 6-4 at No. 2. Jans snapped a five-match singles losing streak with his triumph and Rehfuss won his third straight at line two. Valkyser sealed the deal at No. 4 as he topped Gil 6-2, 6-3 for his ninth-straight singles victory.
The Muleriders are 3-1 all-time against Ouachita since the former's first action as an NCAA program in the spring of 2019. SAU fell 5-2 to the Tigers on April 7 in Arkadelphia. Thursday will be the first postseason matchup between the two squads.
