Results

DENTON, Texas – Down 3-1, the University of South Alabama men’s tennis team won its final three singles matches to defeat top-seeded Denver 4-3 in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Championships Saturday afternoon at the Waranch Tennis Complex.

The fourth-seeded Jaguars (17-6), ranked No. 57 in the nation, will play No. 2 seed Middle Tennessee Sunday morning at 10 a.m. and attempt to win the program’s 16th Sun Belt title. It will be a rematch of last year’s championship match, won by the Blue Raiders 4-3. The Pioneers fall to 12-9.

“Today was filled with so many emotions,” said USA head coach Nick Brochu. “Denver is such a great team and very competitive. They had an excellent year. We had three of our guys winning the first sets, but we needed one guy to make a comeback and get us a big win. Our senior co-captain, Romain (Bocaert), stepped up and beat the conference's highest nationally-ranked player three sets. Today was such a great day for our seniors. All three seniors won their singles matches to get us the win. This is a dream for a coach to have his seniors win big matches in the Championships. I'm so proud of them.”

USA senior Dauw Kruger (Pretoria, South Africa) started the comeback on the No. 5 court when he defeated Fabio Biasion 6-4, 6-4. Senior Romain Bocaert (Lille, France) fell behind a set at No. 1 before staging a comeback of his own, winning 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 over No. 113 Enej Bonin to tie the match at 3-3.

The match came down to senior Hanno Bartsch (Pretoria, South Africa) against Luke Manley at No. 6. Bartsch won the first set 6-3, but lost the second in a tiebreaker 7-6 (8-6). The third frame came down to another tiebreaker, but this time Bartsch came out on top 7-6 (7-4) to give the Jags a chance at another conference title.

“Hanno was the star today,” Brochu said. “He is having such a great tournament. He was so strong mentally. He won the first set, then could not close the match in the second set having five match points and lost 7-6. Many players would not have been able to recover after that, but he went back to work in the third set. He was up 5-2 but couldn't close it. I told him to stay calm and stick to his game. He was down 6-5, but he didn't panic and broke Manley. In the final tiebreaker, Hanno played aggressive and it paid off.”

The two teams split the first two doubles matches of the afternoon, but the Pioneers, ranked No. 48 in the nation, got an 8-5 win at No. 3 from Yannick Weihs and Manley.

Freshman Daniel Leitner (Niederfischbach, Germany) evened the match at 1-1 with 6-3, 6-4 victory at No. 3 before Denver got straight sets wins at Nos. 2 and 4 to take a 3-1 advantage.

“I am so proud of Daniel,” Brochu said. “He played awesome and gave us our first point. Daniel has been such a solid player for us this year. He is a freshman who plays like a senior.”

The Jaguars and Blue Raiders split a pair of matches this season. USA earned a 4-2 win on March 3 in Corpus Christi, Texas while MTSU got revenge almost a month later with a 4-0 victory in the finals of the Sun Belt Shootout in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

“We will rest tonight and get ready for a rematch of last year's final vs MTSU,” Brochu said. “We played them twice this year, splitting the wins. They are a great team and it will be a great final.”

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

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