TOPEKA, Kan. – On Friday in Topeka, the Southwestern College men's and women's tennis teams played in Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship Semifinals at the Kossover Tennis Center. The conference tourney began with an early-morning match for the SC men that ended in a 4-1 triumph, and it concluded with a less fortunate 4-2 loss for the top-seeded (RV) Moundbuilder women against McPherson.
Southwestern dominated in doubles on the men's side, as Benjamin Erdmann and Logan Engela were the first pairing to win their doubles matchup. They were the No. 2 doubles group for SC, and tallied a 6-4 win in their tilt. Then, Federico Poi and Albert Modol nabbed victory in the third doubles match by the same score, 6-4. Ryan Kitchin and Pablo Rodriguez were playing to a 4-4 tie in the top doubles bout, before the match was halted with the Moundbuilders clinching the point.
Men's singles began with a resounding triumph for Modol, who nearly swept his opponent in the No. 4 match of the singles competition, 6-0, 6-1. He was followed by the first loss of the day for the men, as Poi dropped the No. 1 battle by a 6-3, 6-2 final. Engela turned the momentum back in favor of the Moundbuilders with his 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 victory in three sets in the final singles match. With just one win left to get, Kitchin supplied it with a comeback win after dropping the opening set of match No. 2 in singles. He managed a 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 win to end the match and clinch the Builders' spot in the Final on Saturday morning.
The women's squad's day began on a rough note, as the first two doubles matches that concluded were in favor of the Bulldogs. A 6-3 loss for Ella Hartnett and Emily Feihle, along with a 6-2 loss by Jasmin Hauska and Grace Roberts, put Southwestern behind 1-0 entering singles.
The Builders would tie the score with the conclusion of the first match of singles, as Feihle wiped out her opponent in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. Then, Mariana Ochoa snatched a 6-1, 6-3 triumph to give the Moundbuilders a 2-1 lead. The tables turned quickly, however, as McPherson took the next three matches. The first of those losses came in the top singles match, as Catherine Coe fell 6-4, 6-4 to her opposition. Then, Hartnett dropped a tilt to her counterpart in the fifth singles bout. Roberts went the distance in her battle, but dropped the three-set matchup by a final tally of 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. With the loss, the Builders' season ends unless the squad receives an at-large bid for the NAIA National Championship tourney in Mobile, Ala.
For the Builder women (10-2, 9-0 KCAC), it is a bitter ending to what was an incredible season, in which the squad did not lose a single regular-season match within the KCAC. The team will be honored as the conference's regular-season champion, but will not get the opportunity to move on to the national tourney unless picked as an at-large.
The SC men (12-3, 10-1 KCAC) earned their first ever trip to Nationals with the triumph, as the KCAC is given two automatic bids in the men's tournament for the first time in 2023 with the addition of Evangel University to the conference field. The tournament champion and runner-up both earn bids this season, meaning that the Builders have already clinched the latter distinction, and are looking to become conference tournament champs for the first time in history with a win in Saturday morning's match against No. 21-ranked McPherson College at 9 a.m.
--buildersports.com--
