ABILENE - Abilene Christian's men's and women's tennis teams will begin the defense of their
Lone Star Conference titles this Friday and Saturday at the Southlake (Texas) Tennis Center. The Wildcat women have won the last four conference crowns, dating back to 2008, while the men have captured the previous three.
Overall, the ACU tennis program has won a combined 35 titles with the first earned by its women's team in 1985, igniting a 13-year winning streak. The men won their first conference championship in 1988 and have since won 11 more titles over the last 18 years.
ACU's 16th-ranked men's team (17-8) won all three of its conference matches this spring to claim the tournament's No. 1 seed, and as such will be paired against fourth-seed Cameron in the first of two semifinals, beginning Friday at 1:30 p.m.
The Wildcats edged the 18th-ranked Aggies, 5-4, on March 15 in their lone meeting of 2012. ACU lost two of three doubles matches to start the dual, but came back with four victories in singles capped by
Michael Morris' 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 triumph at No. 5 over Jorge Gerosi.
ACU also battled through a couple of close victories vs. Incarnate Word and Midwestern State, who will meet in the first semifinal. The Wildcats doubled up the Mustangs, 6-3, earlier this month, and in early March fought off the Cardinals, 7-2. Despite the lopsided margin of victory, it should be noted that four of the ACU/UIW singles contests were stretched to a third set.
Against the Mustangs, the Wildcats again found themselves in an early 2-1 hole but responded by winning their first four singles matches at the No. 1 through 4 positions.
Alfredo Desiati finished first at No. 4 with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Tomas Grejtak to tie the score at 2-2, and then sixth-ranked
Hans Hach gave ACU the lead for good after defeating Mario Urban 6-2, 6-2 at the top line.
ACU freshman Borja Cortes clinched the team victory following his three-set comeback win at No. 3 singles over Colby Meeks, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5).
The Wildcats' sixth-ranked women's team (21-3) steamrolled every one of their 13 NCAA Division II opponents this season, including all five of its conference foes. And as the tournament's No. 1 seed the Wildcats won't play their first match until Friday at 6:30 p.m. against the winner of Tarleton State and Midwestern State.
The TexAnns came to Abilene on March 2 with a No. 20 ranking and were defeated, 8-1, and more recently, the 39th-ranked Mustangs were blanked at the Eager Tennis Pavilion, 9-0.
ACU finished its regular season 7-0 against nationally ranked DII squads, and beat all of them by either a margin of 8-1 or 9-0. This list also includes No. 10 Rollins, No. 14 Cameron, No. 17 Cal State Los Angeles, and No. 21 UC San Diego.
In singles play, ACU's eight-woman team led by
Julia Mongin at the top line has posted an overall record of 125-16 (.887) with no one player or position losing more than four times. The doubles tandems have been equally dominant with 20 different combinations registering an overall record of 58-13 (.817).
