ACU men rally to knock off Midwestern State

ACU men rally to knock off Midwestern State

Wildcats come back from 3-0 deficit to win first title since 1998

The Indians, the defending LSC champions, dominated the doubles matches, winning 8-5, 8-5 and 8-4 to take a commanding lead. But they couldn't hold it as the Wildcats swamped them in singles play. Trent Broach brought home the championship for the Wildcats with a three-set win over Ryan Gillen at No. 4 singles.

ACU's top three players -- Julien Curatella at No. 1, Theron Cole at No. 2 and Walter Seidel at No. 3 -- won in two-set walks to get the Wildcats even at 3-3. The key match of the day was probably Kirk O'Connor's three-set victory over Brad Williams at No. 6 singles.

O'Connor lost the first game 6-4 before battling back to win the second game, 6-3, and knot the match at a game apiece. He then battled back from a 4-3 deficit in the third game to win 6-4 and give his team a 4-3 lead with two matches still on the court.

Michael Mills, however, put a temporary hold on ACU's momentum with a three-set win over Clayton Morgan (2-6, 6-2, 6-3) at No. 5 singles to bring the match back even at 4-4.

But Broach wouldn't let the Wildcats lose.

After winning the first set in a tie-breaker (7-4), he ran out of steam in a 6-1 second-set loss. He regained that momentum in the third set, however, storming to a 6-1 win over Gillen to clinch only the fifth men's LSC tennis title in ACU history.

"When we got down 3-0, I looked at each singles spot and I we had the better player at each position," ACU head coach Hutton Jones said. "I just had a real strange confidence that we would be OK.

"If we had gone out there and won just one doubles match, we would have had guys thinking that all we needed was four singles win, and then we would have had guys passing the buck to other guys," Jones said. "But when we put ourselves in a 3-0 hole, everybody knew when we hit the court for singles play that we needed every point. I think that pressure helped us."

The Wildcats, now 16-9 on the season, will likely host one of the two Central region tournaments, April 28-May 1. Those tournament hosts and brackets won't be announced until Monday.