DENTON, Texas --- Denver won doubles and took Nos. 3-5 singles in straight sets to defeat the University of South Alabama 4-2 on Friday and advance to the semifinals of the Sun Belt Men’s Tennis Championships.

The Pioneers (10-10) will face either No. 1 Middle Tennessee or No. 8 Western Kentucky later today at 6:30 p.m. The Jaguars end their season at 11-12.

USA took an early 1-0 lead in doubles when freshmen Leo Dominguez (Paris, France) and Dauw Kruger (Pretoria, South Africa) won at No. 2, 8-3. But Denver took the point with wins at Nos. 1 and 3, 8-4, rallying from a 4-3 deficit at the top flight.

“Doubles was up and down,” said USA head coach Nick Brochu. “We dominated at No. 2. The guys did a great job. Our plan today was to start strong and finish that way and the guys at No. 2 did exactly that. We lost the doubles point today because we did not take advantage of our opportunities. We had tons of break points at number one and just didn’t close it out. When Denver had the chance to break us, they did, and we didn’t.

“We knew that singles were going to be tough. We played them two weeks ago and knew we could probably split the singles and that’s why the doubles point was so important.”

South Alabama started singles play strong with bookended wins at No. 1 and No. 6. Senior Marek Sramek (Skalica, Slovakia) put the Jags ahead 2-1 when he defeated Martin Zimmerman 6-4, 6-4 at No. 1. Kruger earlier tied the match with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Varun Gunaseelan.

 “We were confident going into singles,” said Brochu. “It was great to see our senior captain (Sramek) be one of the first ones done with a big win at number one. It was good to have two wins on the board that quick.”

The Pioneers clinched the match with three straight wins. Yannick Weihs started it with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over sophomore Aaron Krisan (Marietta, Ga.) at No. 4 and Benny Althaus downed Dominguez to close the door.

“I think some of our guys played ?shy’ and didn’t deliver like they should have,” said Brochu. “Leo’s match was a dogfight and could have gone either way. The bottom line is, when Denver had a chance to break us, they took advantage. Some of our guys played not to lose instead of playing to win, and that was the difference today.

“All things considered, I’m really proud of our guys. We return all but one player for next season and I think we can build on this and come back stronger.”

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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