MOBILE, Ala.--No. 2 Azusa Pacific claimed two wins at doubles and three wins at singles to squeak past No. 3 Embry-Riddle 5-3 at the NAIA national semi-final at the Mobile Tennis Center on Thursday morning.

The Cougars got singles wins from Patrick Kur (No. 2), Matthijs Bolsius (No. 4), and Art Fatkhiev (No. 6) to advance to the national championship match.

Embry-Riddle, which fell in the semis to Auburn-Montgomery last year, got a win at No. 1 doubles from Mislav Hizak and Konstantin Lazarov, who defeated the tandem of Kur and Mathias Weber 8-3.

Hizak also claimed a 6-1, 6-2 win over David Goodman at No. 1 singles, while Carlos Bes defeated Weber by the same count at No. 3.

The Cougars will move on to the national title match, where they will square off with Auburn-Montgomery tomorrow at 11 a.m. The Eagles, who return all eight players from this year's team, end their season at 19-2.

 

 

Match-by-match Results

 

Doubles
#1 - M. Hizak/K. Lazarov (ERAU) def. P. Kur/M. Weber (APU), 8-3
#2 - D. Goodman/M. Bolsius (APU) def. C. Bes/T. Yasuda (ERAU), 8-4
#3 - R. Chow/R. Dabbs (APU) def. I. Bolgar/L. Maricic (ERAU), 8-5

Singles
#1 - Mislav Hizak (ERAU) def. David Goodman (APU), 6-1, 6-2
#2 - Patrick Kur (APU) def. Konstantin Lazarov (ERAU), 6-0, 4-6, 6-4
#3 - Carlos Bes (ERAU) def. Mathias Weber (APU), 6-1, 6-2
#4 - Matthijs Bolsius (APU) def. Tomoaki Yasuda (ERAU), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
#5 - Istvan Bolgar (ERAU) vs. Ronald Chow (APU), 6-7, 6-2, 1-4 DNF
#6 - Art Fatkhiev (APU) def. Luke Maricic (ERAU), 6-1, 0-6, 6-3