TYLER, TEXAS – UT Tyler men's tennis gets their chance to punch their ticket to the NCAA Division II National Championship tomorrow morning as they take on St. Mary's in the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament.
That match will be held beginning at 10 a.m. on Tuesday at the Summers Tennis Center. This will be the first Division II postseason match to be held at the complex, and the Patriots have a golden opportunity to advance to the national championship to be held May 18-22 in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
WHAT A RUN
UT Tyler ran through the LSC stretch of the regular season schedule with a record of 6-1, including a run of five consecutive victories to open up the slate. The lone defeat came at the hands of Midwestern State back on April 10.
Not deterred, the Patriots cruised into the Lone Star Conference Tournament as the #2 overall seed and looked to make waves in their first ever postseason appearance of the Division II era. In the quarterfinals, the Patriots dominated UT Permian Basin to secure a 4-0 win. That brought up Cameron in the semifinals, and the Patriots collected a 4-2 victory to move on to the finals.
In those finals, UT Tyler saw the only LSC team to take them down this season in Midwestern State. It was a tight contest that saw both teams clawing for every point, but it was the Patriots who emerged victorious and claimed their first LSC Tournament title.
HOSTING REGIONALS
On May 3
rd, the Patriots were selected by the NCAA as the number one seed in the South Central Region thanks to their big run in the LSC tournament. They become the first program at UT Tyler in the Division II era to host a regional competition on their home court.
The South Central Region Tournament is composed of four teams, all from the Lone Star Conference. In the NCAA Tournament, two teams from each regional will earn their spot in the 16-team final to take place in Florida.
In the regional, the Patriots and Rattlers will face off in a #1 vs. #4 matchup, while the other side of the bracket will see #2 seed Midwestern State take on #3 Cameron to determine the other program making it to the finals.
SERIES HISTORY
UT Tyler and St. Mary's have faced off just two times in each other's program histories. Both of those contests have come within the last two seasons as the Patriots have made the transition to Division II.
The first of those matches came on March 27, 2021, and saw UT Tyler take a 5-2 win. That match saw the Patriots earn the doubles point before rolling in singles with wins in the #2, #3, #4, and #6 singles lines.
Most recently, the two programs met on the final day of the regular season on April 23 in Tyler, Texas. It was the Patriots again who came home with a 5-2 victory. In that match they swept the doubles points, as the combinations of
Gonzalo Fernandez Gil /
Moritz Mayer and
Jonas Dixon /
Jorge Sala Frigeri collected 6-4 wins and
Joaquin Bianchi /
Egor Shestakov collected a dominant 6-2 win.
In singles, the Patriots kept up the solid momentum, as Bianchi, Fernandez Gil,
Safar Rasulov, and
Yudai Watanabe each collected a victory.
THE SCOUTING REPORT
St. Mary's will come into the regional matchup as the #4 seed. The Rattlers are 17-6 on the season and played the LSC portion of their regular season schedule at 4-3.
In the LSC tournament, the Rattlers danced through the quarterfinals with a 4-1 victory over UAFS. That brought them up against Midwestern State in the semifinals, and they dropped the contest 4-0.
The Rattlers are led in singles by Oskar Irdoja. Irdoja was an All-LSC Second Team Singles honoree after a strong 16-5 overall record throughout the 2022 campaign. During the LSC slate, Irdoja collected a 5-2 record, including a four match winning streak.
In doubles, it is the pair of Niklas Knoerr and Nicolas Llosa that lead the way. The pair collected Honorable Mention All-LSC Honors after going 13-2 on the year with a 4-2 record in LSC play. That run of form included a stretch of four wins in five matches for the Rattlers pair.
Coaching St. Mary's is Bill Macom. Macom is now in his third season with the Rattlers and has posted a 34-15 record while at the helm. Under his leadership, the program qualified for the 2021 NCAA South Central Regional and have now made it two consecutive seasons.
ON THE HORIZON
The match tomorrow morning will determine who will make their way to Florida for the NCAA National Championship. 16 teams will make the single elimination national tournament in Altamonte Springs with two coming from each regional. Those 16 teams will be re-seeded prior to tournament play.
