Men's Tennis Tops Youngstown State 4-1 to Advance to Horizon League Championship Title Match

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Following a hard-fought 4-1 semifinal victory over Youngstown State Saturday afternoon in Michigan, the Belmont University men's tennis team will play for the 2023 Horizon League Men's Tennis Championship Sunday. The top-seeded Bruins (20-5, 10-0 Horizon) in the South Division blew past the second-seeded Penguins (13-11, 6-2 Horizon) in the North Division for the doubles point before earning a trio of singles wins at the Varsity Tennis Center in Ann Arbor.
 
Grueling singles contests at the No. 2-5 spots eventually led to junior Tomas Luis clinching the match on court three with a come-from-behind three-set triumph.
 
Strong performances at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles provided Belmont with the doubles point in rather efficient fashion. The second doubles tandem of junior Alfred Wallin and senior Jack Randall quickly dismissed Youngstown State's David Alvarez Moreno and William Everett 6-1, before the No. 3 duo of Luis and sophomore Ian Cruz bested the Penguins' Laurentiu Mandocescu and Harry Fouzas by an identical set score.
 
At No. 1 doubles, Youngstown State's Clement Mainguy and Nathan Favier had just taken a 4-3 lead on the nationally-ranked pair of graduate student Marko Ilic and junior Riccardo Trione when Luis and Cruz secured the crucial doubles point.
 
In singles play things became much tighter. Randall gave the Bruins a 2-0 lead with the most lopsided singles match of the day, cruising to a 6-2, 6-0 win over Alverez Moreno at the sixth position. Ilic then finished off Mandocescu 6-3, 6-3 at the top spot to make it 3-0.
 
From there, the match would remain undecided for a little while longer as the Penguins claimed their lone point of the afternoon at No. 5 singles where Youngstown State's Javi Gonzalez Pla edged Trione 6-4, 7-6 (4).
 
At both the second and third positions, the Penguins saved several match points. Wallin looked to be off the court first at the No. 2 spot after defeating Mainguy 6-0 in the opening set and leading 5-3 in the second. Despite holding a trio of match points at 6-5, Wallin was unable to put Mainguy away and the two battled into a third set before Luis sealed the match.
 
On court three, Luis fought his way back from a 6-3 first set loss to Favier and evened things up with a 6-4 set two win. After serving for the match at 5-2 in the third with multiple match points, Luis broke Favier to close out the victory at 6-3.
 
Like Luis, Cruz was in control at the No. 4 position after the opening set against Fouzas. A 7-5 first set went Fouzas way before Cruz won the second 6-1 and put together a 4-1 lead in the third when Luis finished.
 
Belmont will vie for its third conference tournament championship in program history Sunday afternoon in Ann Arbor. The Bruins face South Division No. 2 seed Tennessee Tech in the Horizon League Championship title match at 2 p.m. CT.
 
During the regular season, Belmont swept the Golden Eagles 7-0 on April 15 in the Music City after routing Tennessee Tech 6-1 in Cookeville, Tennessee, on March 26. The two teams also squared off in last year's Ohio Valley Conference Championship title match, which resulted in a 4-1 Golden Eagle win. Last April, the Bruins won the OVC regular season championship with 5-2 triumph over visiting Tennessee Tech.
 
Belmont takes a 13-match winning streak into Sunday's championship match.
 
The title match will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
 
Follow Belmont men's tennis on social media – @BelmontMTennis on Twitter and @belmontmtennis on Instagram – for complete coverage of the Bruins. Stay up to date with all of Belmont's athletic programs via the official app of the Belmont Bruins, available both in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.
 

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