The men’s tennis team ended the season on a high note by finishing fourth place in the Sun Belt Conference championship, the best finish in the Pioneers’ Division I history.
The No. 4 seeded Pioneers opened the conference championships with a 4-1 win over No. 5 seeded Arkansas-Little Rock in Mobile.
Adam Holmstrom and Steve Flaks each recorded singles and doubles wins for the Pioneers and advanced to the semifinals for the first time in DU’s Division I history.
“It feels good to accomplish some of our goals which were higher in past years,” said Head Coach Geoff Young.
Holmstrom defeated Eduardo Autran 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 singles.
With partner Niklas Persson, he also won at No. 1 doubles, 8-5 over Autran and Edsin Abrao.
Flaks, along with partner Kalle Rosen, posted a comeback win at No. 3 doubles.
The two were down 7-3 against UALR’s Tim Walters and Rain Roagas 7-3, but came back to win 9-7 to clinch the doubles point.
Flaks clinched the win for the Pioneers with a victory at No. 5 singles. After the win the Pioneers moved on to the semifinals and faced top-seeded Middle Tennessee, where DU was crushed.
Middle Tennessee claimed both doubles points and won three singles matches to clinch the victory in the semifinals. DU’s Persson was defeated by Marco Born 6-4, 6-3 at No. 2 singles.
At No. 5 singles Flaks was downed 6-4, 6-3 by Anant Sitaram.
Greg Pollack of Middle Tennessee also defeated Rosen at No. 6 singles 6-3, 6-2.
The doubles matches were not much different as the Blue Raiders won the doubles point by beating Jason Tan and Viktor Zetterholm at No. 2 doubles 8-3.
The Pioneers looked for, at best, a third place finish when they faced the Southern Alabama Jaguars in the final day of the championships.
The Jaguars took an early lead after Clinton Jacobs and Dias Doskarayev defeated Holmstrom and Persson, claiming the first doubles point of the match, 8-4.
The Jaguars never looked back as they swept the Pioneers 4-0 and took third place with their victory at the SBC Championships.
The Pioneers ended their season with a 9-14 overall record.
This is the best finish that the team has had in Division I play.
“We had a list of firsts this year and hope to add to that list come next season,” said Flaks. “We just need to work on the little things in practice and matches. That will make the difference for next year.”
Young is looking to push his players in practice in order to prepare for next season.
The Pioneers return all but one senior next year.
“This year’s success is due to several factors. We have two outstanding freshmen from Sweden, Adam Holmstrom and Niklas Persson,” said Young.
He added, “These guys are a tremendous doubles team, and played No. 1 & No. 2 singles respectively. We also had sound leadership from our captains that created great chemistry on the team.”
