St. Peter, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s tennis team secured its fifth straight and eighth total Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Playoff Championship with a 5-0 victory over Carleton College on Saturday afternoon at the Brown Outdoor Courts. The Gusties cruised to three doubles wins before earning the playoff crown with wins at the No. 3 and No. 5 singles positions.
Thanks to its win, the Gustavus men’s tennis team earned the MIAC’s automatic berth into the 2015 NCAA Tournament. The Gusties will be making their fifth straight and 28th total appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1983. This season’s playoff title is the fifth for Head Coach Tommy Valentini who took over the program in the 2009-10 season. Gustavus heads into the NCAA Championships with a 19-10 overall record. The Gusties are 17-1 all-time in the MIAC Playoffs since the league’s post-season tournament moved to its current single elimination format.
Gustavus came out hot in doubles and quickly jumped out to a 3-0 lead. The afternoon began with an 8-4 win by Brad Entwistle (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) and Mohanad Al-Houni (Fr., Tripoli, Libya) over Ezra Frankel and Kevin Mei at No. 2. Mitch Elofson (Jr., St. Peter, Minn.) and T. Connor Shives (Fr., Rochester, Minn.) followed up with an 8-2 win over Kevin Hurley and Paul Elbow. Doubles was wrapped up at the No. 1 position with an 8-3 win by Motasem Al-Houni (Sr. Tipoli, Libya) and Andres Saenz (So., Cancun, Mexico) over Ben Huang and Erik Johnson.
In singles, the Gusties extended their lead thanks to a 6-0, 6-0 win by Elofson over Frankel at the No. 5 spot, and then clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-2 victory by Saenz over Johnson at No. 2.
FROM THE MIAC
In addition to the MIAC Playoff championship plaque, Gustavus will also receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Tournament. The field for the team tournament will be announced on NCAA.com on Monday at noon. The individual and doubles tournament fields will be announced two days later, on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Fans can re-live the MIAC Men’s Tennis Playoffs on the tournament home page, which includes scores, box scores, recaps an interactive tournament bracket, and more. Fans can also connect on social media through the MIAC’s Facebook page or Twitter and Instagram accounts, using the hashtags #MIACMT and #MIACPlayoffs.