Sumter, South Carolina - Trinity
University can claim another national championship, as seniors
Jordan Mayer and Aaron Skinner won the USTA/Intercollegiate Tennis
Association Division III Doubles Championship on Friday.
The Tiger duo won 6-4, 6-4 over Connor Hudson and
Kalyan Chadalavada of Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in the title match.
For Skinner, it was the second time he brought
home the top prize, as he won the 2012 ITA Singles
Championship.
The victory at the Palmetto Tennis Center marked
Trinity's fourth ITA national doubles crown, with the last
coming in 2010 from Bobby Cocanougher and Cory Kowal. The Tigers
have now won a total of 11 ITA singles and doubles
championships.
Mayer and Skinner advanced to the championship
match by beating David Liu and Deepak Sabada of the University of
Chicago 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals earlier today. The
resilient Tiger team actually trailed 4-1 in the opening set, but
rallied to win 11 of the next 12 games to nab the victory and
advance to the championship.
The two Tigers had to work for the title, as
they started the tournament last Wednesday by winning a play-in
match over Jake Hoeger and Zach Hewlin of Whitman College.
Trinity's tandem took out No. 2 seeds Alex Ruderman and Ian
Wagner of Emory University in Thursday's quarterfinals to
move on to the semifinals.
Up next is a 1:00 p.m. (ET) match Saturday with
the NAIA champion doubles team of Deni Zmak and Jaime
Sanchez-Canamares-Rios of Embry-Riddle University. At stake is a
berth in Sunday's “Super Bowl,” where the winners
of singles and doubles in Divisions II, III, the NAIA, and Junior
College slug it out to determine the overall champions.
Trinity junior Adam Krull meets Ruderman at
10:30 a.m. Saturday for the fifth-place position in
singles.