Memphis, TN - In a thrilling SAA Tournament final that went down to the wire, the 14th-ranked Trinity University Men's Tennis team fell to 15th-ranked Sewanee University 4-3 on Sunday morning at the Leftwich Tennis Center, dropping a hard-fought championship match that wasn't decided until the very last ball was struck.

Sewanee seized control early in doubles, striking first at #1 where the 2nd-ranked pairing of Kishan Kersten (Plano, Texas / West) and Jared Perry (Tucson, Ariz. / Catalina Foothills) fell to Jakobi and Schroerlucke 6-2, putting immediate pressure on the Tigers. Sewanee's Verellen and Wrigley followed with an emphatic 6-0 shutout of Aashish Dhanani (Austin, Texas / Westwood) and Conor Kaczmarczyk (Aurora, Colo. / Regis Jesuit) at #3 to clinch the doubles point and hand Sewanee a 1-0 advantage heading into singles. The #2 match of Ethan Flores (Houston, Texas / Clear Lake) and Roshin Kamath (League City, Texas / Clear Springs) against Lammert and Rukavina was left unfinished at 4-3, with Trinity holding the edge on that court when play was called.
Facing a 1-0 deficit, Trinity needed a response in singles, and at the top of the lineup, the Tigers delivered. 28th-ranked Kersten at #1 was composed and relentless, grinding past Jakobi 6-4, 7-5 in a tightly contested battle to pull Trinity level at 1-1. 40th-ranked Perry at #2 followed immediately, dispatching Hyden 6-4, 6-2 with precision and efficiency to flip the momentum and give Trinity a 2-1 lead, putting the Tigers in position to chase a championship.

But Sewanee had answers of its own. Lammert at #3 delivered one of the day's most compelling performances, outlasting Ryan Warren (Keller, Texas / Connection Academy) in a three-set war, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3, refusing to yield even as Warren pushed him deep into the match. While Schroerlucke put Sewanee 3-2 ahead as he handled Dhanani 6-3, 6-1 to put Trinity's backs against the wall.
With the championship on the line, Trinity turned to Kamath at #5. He answered the call, battling through a difficult middle set to grind out a 6-0, 4-6, 7-5 victory over Verellen in a grueling three-setter that tied the match at 3-3 and set the stage for a winner-take-all finale at #6.

It all came down to Flores against Wrigley. In what proved to be the decisive contest of the entire tournament, Wrigley edged Flores 7-6, 6-4 in a match that was tighter than the scoreline suggests, clinching the SAA Championship for Sewanee and ending Trinity's SAA tournament in defeat.

Trinity can take pride in a tournament run that demanded everything the Tigers had. They won the day before, they battled on every court, and they made Sewanee earn every single point of a championship that was never settled until the very end.

Up Next

The 14th-ranked Trinity Men's Tennis team's qualification for the national tournament will be determined in the NCAA DIII Men's Tennis Selection Show on Monday, May 4th, at 12:30 p.m.