MOBILE, Ala. – The second-seeded Embry-Riddle men's tennis team earned a hard-fought 5-1 victory over Point Loma Nazarene in the quarterfinal round of the 2011 NAIA National Championship, Thursday at the Mobile Tennis Center. The Eagles are now 16-6 on the year and are through to the national tournament semifinals for the seventh year in a row.
The Eagles grabbed an early advantage after winning all three doubles matches.
Chris Freeman and
Jan Hoekzema bounced back from a tough loss on Wednesday to top Joel Myers and KC Ensely at the top spot.
Peter Francis and
Simon Felix followed with an 8-4 defeat of DJ Jaehnig and Angel Tavera at No. 3 and
Adrian Bayh and
Patrick Besch completed the sweep with a 8-4 win over Tyler Bowman and Diego Tavera at the second position.
The first singles match to reach conclusion was on court No. 6 where Mike Zablan downed
David Spennare 6-3, 6-2 to give Point Loma its only point of the day. The next match off the court was right next door to Zablan and Spennare where Felix celebrated his 20th birthday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Jaehnig to extend the Eagle advantage to 4-1 at the fifth singles spot.
The remaining four matches provided excitement and intensity for fans of both programs, with the Eagles managing to pull out first-set win on three of four courts. Freeman won easily on court one (6-2), while Hoekzema came from behind to take his first stanza 7-5 and Francis needed a tie breaker to win his first set 7-6 (7-3). At the No. 3 position, Besch dropped his first set 6-4, but rebounded to take the second 6-3 and force a third set.
The Embry-Riddle contingent was on the edge of their collective seats, willing the Eagles to victory. In the end, the Blue and Gold got the point it needed from Freeman at the top spot. His second set battle was much closer than his first as both he and Myers held serve, resulting in a 5-5 deadlock. Freeman was finally able to break Myers to go up 6-5 and held serve to win 7-5 and score the clincher.
The Eagles' semifinal opponent will be Auburn Montgomery who edged Westmont 5-4 to advance. Both teams will take the court at 9 a.m. (CST) on Friday.
