KERRVILLE, Texas - No. 8 Trinity University Men's Tennis collected its 12th straight Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship Sunday afternoon in a 5-0 victory over No. 23 Southwestern University. Trinity has won all but four SCAC men's tennis titles since 1992 for a total of 26.
As has been the case throughout the season, the Tigers (15-8) saw little drama in first-flight doubles as Christian Settles (Claremont, Calif. / Claremont) and Hao Nguyen (Sugar Land, Texas / Strake Jesuit) powered to a quick 8-2 victory. As the nation's second-ranked duo checked into the book, Trinity was staring down a potential deficit heading into singles.
Both lines two and three for the Tigers were trailing by three games at that point. Wilson Hamilton (Austin, Texas / ATA Prep) and Cameron Goldstein (Dallas, Texas / Episcopal) were slightly further along in their line-two endeavor, down 6-3, while Cameron Krimbill (Phoenix, Ariz. / Desert Mountain) and Alessio Azzalini (Rome, Italy / Istituto Visconti) faced a 5-2 deficit in line three.
Both pairs worked their way into just one-game margins, though Trinity had its back against the wall as both remaining doubles bouts saw 7-6 advantages for the Pirates. Just moments later, both matches were headed to a tiebreaker where the Tigers came out on top for a doubles sweep that seemed improbable just 20 minutes earlier. Krimbill and Azzalini's 7-4 breaker score sealed the sweep just-after a 7-5 mark from Hamilton and Goldstein in line two.
Settles and Krimbill jumped ahead quickly in the race to clinch as both recorded 6-2 first-set victories, followed by a third 6-2 tally for Nguyen in line two and a pair of 6-1 marks from Hamilton and Eric Liao (Taipei, Taiwan / Boca Prep) in the fifth and sixth lines, respectively.
Azzalini completed the first-sets sweep in singles on a 6-4 mark in line three. By then, Settles had amassed a 3-0 lead in line four, followed by 2-1 margins from Krimbill and Liao. Settles completed his second-set shutout as the first singles match to conclude, setting the stage for a race to the clinch.
Hamilton and Liao gained the upper hand amongst the Tigers late as the fifth and sixth-line players both kept pace on 4-1 tallies while Krimbill, Nguyen and Azzalini all had three games in had, though Nguyen held just a one-game margin while Krimbill was the first to trail in singles play.
Liao kept his pace all the way through, clinching the match on a 6-2 second-set tally. Three of the four remaining singles matches held advantages for Trinity when the rackets dropped. Krimbill's line-one match had worked back to a 5-5 deadlock at the time as well.
No. 8 Trinity Men's Tennis earned the SCAC's automatic qualification for the NCAA III National Championship tournament with Sunday's victory, and will await further instruction from the NCAA for regional competition. The 2022 NCAA III tournament's final site will be the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, with dual match competition opening the week on May 23.
