BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Southeastern Oklahoma State cruised in its 2018 Great American Conference Men’s Tennis Championships semifinal contest on Friday from Memorial Park while Harding grinded out a victory to set up a title clash between the top two seeds.
The Savage Storm (10-7) advanced to the final for the third time in four seasons after they swept Ouachita (2-15). The duos of Matias Vargas and Milos Vuckovic and Danrich Kruger and Sandro Lena scored easy wins at the No. 3 and No. 2 positions, respectively. Carlos Anez and Ondrej Nice, ranked No. 12 in the ITA national rankings, pulled out an 8-5 win against Juan Moncada and Lennart Lonneman in the No. 1 match.
Leno tallied the first singles point for Southeastern, 6-1, 6-1, against Moncada. Anez, the GAC Newcomer and Player of the Year, closed out the match by scoring a 6-3, 6-2 win against Dan Kaplun.
The Bisons (14-6) won its first GAC Championship match in seven tries as they eliminated Oklahoma Baptist, the reigning tournament champions, 5-3.
They opened the match with the Bison (7-8) by scoring wins in all three doubles matches. Morgan Salvan and Alejandro Sendra notched the first point as they bested Gianlucca Galdi and Kevin Andrusch, 8-2, at the No. 1 position. Adria Abella and Pablo Trevino, Harding’s No. 3 tandem, collected the second point after beating Daniel Aguilera and Luis Romero, 8-5. Carlos Crisostomo and Luis Tirado completed the sweep by knocking off Lucas Branco and Matias Le Fort, 8-5, in No. 2 doubles.
Andrusch gave Oklahoma Baptist its first point as he quickly dispatched of Salvan, 6-0, 6-1, at No. 5 singles. Abella restored Harding’s three-point advantage Aguilera by earning a 6-0, 6-1 win.
The Bison claimed the subsequent two singles points thanks to Babji Atturu’s 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 6 singles and Galdi’s three-set win against Crisostomo.
With the final two matches both pushed to third sets, Harding finally secured the victory when Sendra recovered after dropping the second set to Branco to claim the match with a 6-3 win in the ultimate set.
The final begins at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. During the regular season, the Savage Storm recorded a 5-1 win against the Bisons, Harding’s only loss in its last 12 games.