Greenville SLIAC Champs for the First Time
After finishing as the runner-up for six straight years, Greenville University broke through today to become the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Champions for 2022. The Panthers topped their nemesis the last six years, Principia College, 5-0.
"Even though we beat Prin in the regular season, we came in today with great respect for them," said Greenville head coach Brett Brannon. "We have been on the other side of these hard-fought matches so many times. As always, Principia fought from the first ball. But we just knew today that it was our turn."
Greenville opened the match with a sweep in doubles play. Rafael Rodriguez and Andres Sanchez picked up an 8-5 win at #1 doubles while the #2 team of Clark Kent and Luke Motsinger won 8-6. The #3 team of Austin Burkhart and Matt Lehr edged out an 8-7 win, winning 8-7 in a tiebreaker.
The Panthers needed just two more points as they entered singles play and it would come from the same doubles teammates that edged out a win earlier in the match; Kent and Motsinger. Playing at #3 singles Kent picked up a 6-0, 6-4 win while Motsinger recorded a 6-3, 6-2 victory at #4 singles.
"We knew we had something special from the beginning of the season," said Brannon. "Not just because of the on-court talent of this team, but because of the servant leadership that I saw from our top players. The guys were in it for each other from day 1. When your best players are your hardest workers, coaching is pretty easy."
This marks the Panthers' first-ever SLIAC Men's Tennis Championship after having previously appeared in eight championship matches. Greenville improves to 19-2 on the season with six different players recording double-digit wins this season.
"Another strength of our team was our depth," said Brannon. "We received contributions from every member of the team. Every guy was capable of winning as part of the varsity lineup."
- #SLIACtion -
