ACU women win; men fall to MSU

ACU women earn 10th straight bid to national tournament

ABILENE, TX -- The Abilene Christian University women on Friday did what's been expected of them since the season began by winning the NCAA Division II Central Region tennis title and advancing to next week's national tournament in Altamonte Springs, Fla.

The Midwestern State men's team, however, pulled off the next-to-impossible by winning five of six singles matches to rebound from a 4-0 deficit against top-seeded Abilene Christian, beating the Wildcats 5-4 on their home court to earn MSU's third trip to the national tournament.

The ACU women won their sixth straight regional tournament title and earned their 10th straight bid to the national tournament with a 5-0 win over Northeastern State.  The Wildcats, now 31-5 on the season and ranked No. 7 in the nation, will be making their 18th appearance in the national tournament, which is scheduled for May 11-14.

The Wildcats, however, get no favors from the draw as they will likely have to face No. 6 Lynn University in Wednesday's first round.  ACU has been knocked out of the national tournament in the quarterfinal round in each of the last nine years, and six times the team that beat ACU has gone on to win the national championship, including Lynn in 1997 and 2001.

But the Wildcats will worry about the draw next week.  For now they'll savor a relatively easy victory over the team that some thought would be the Wildcats' closest competition at the tournament.  Instead ACU turned the match into a rout by cruising to three doubles wins to open the match.

Lana Pavlin and Holly Lindloff - newly installed as ACU's No. 1 doubles team - cruised to an 8-5 win over Holly McKee and Berit Itschert, and the No. 2 team of Rachel Taylor and Lauren Yarbrough beat Simona Stoica and Kelli Sturm, 8-4.  Summer Beesley and Meagan Brown closed out a 3-0 rout at No. 3 doubles with an 8-2 win over Amanda Stone and Nicole Chambers.

In singles play, Taylor beat Stoica, 6-3, 6-1, and Brown knocked off Chambers, 6-3, 6-2, to close out the match.

"We dominated doubles, and that set the tone," ACU head coach Hutton Jones said.  "I didn't see one of our girls looking around for someone else to take responsibility for what was going on out there.  They were each trying to win the point.  We'll have a tough first-round draw at the national tournament, but we're taking as good a team as we've ever had at ACU."

For the first two hours of the men's championship match, it looked as if the ACU men would be joining their female teammates at the national tournament for the third straight year.  ACU won all three doubles matches in convincing fashion and then saw No. 1 singles player Artin Tafazoli - ranked in the nation's top 20 in singles - cruise to a 6-2, 6-1 win over Gene Ligeon.

But then the Indians took over, winning in straight sets at Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 to knot the match at 4-4.  The final match on the court was at No. 6 singles where ACU's Evan Puglia and MSU's Jared King battled for almost three hours.  Puglia - who had won the deciding match in 5-4 ACU wins six straight times entering the match - looked as if he would do it again, taking the first set 6-2 and then moving in front 5-4 in the second set.

But King held serve at 5-4 and went on to win the second set, 7-6, in a tiebreaker.  Puglia won the first game of the third set, but King held serve and then broke Puglia to go up 2-1.  King held serve to make it 3-1, but Puglia bounced back to make it 3-2.  King then held serve and broke Puglia again to make it 5-2 before serving out the match and giving his team the comeback victory.

"We had close to our best effort of the season in doubles," Jones said, "and won those three matches pretty decisively.  But they (Midwestern State) went to a level in singles play that I hadn't seen from them before."

ACU had won 11 straight 5-4 matches dating back to the 2003 season, including two weeks ago against Midwestern State in the Lone Star Conference tournament final and the first win in the streak, a win over Midwestern State in the 2003 regional championship match.

NCAA DIVISION II CENTRAL REGION TENNIS
EAGER TENNIS CENTER / ABILENE CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY / ABILENE, TX
WOMEN
Friday, May 6
Championship
Abilene Christian 5, Northeastern State 0
     Singles -- Rachel Taylor, ACU, def. Simona Stoica, NSU, 6-3, 6-1; Meagan Brown, ACU, def. Nichole Chambers, NSU, 6-3, 6-2.
     Doubles -- Lana Pavlin-Holly Lindloff, ACU, def. Holly McKee-Berit Itschert, NSU, 8-5; Rachel Taylor-Lauren Yarbrough, ACU, def. Simona Stoica-Kelli Sturm, NSU, 8-4; Summer Beesley-Meagan Brown, ACU, def. Amanda Stone-Nicole Chambers, NSU, 8-2.

MEN
Friday, May 6
Championship
Midwestern State 5, Abilene Christian 4
     Singles -- Artin Tafazoli, ACU, def. Gene Ligeon, MSU, 6-4, 7-5; Brett Emerson, MSU, def. Casper Steenkamp, ACU, 6-4, 7-5; Rohan Williams, MSU, def. Jason Ray, ACU, 6-3, 7-6; Charles van Swelm, MSU, def. George Carstens, ACU, 7-6, 7-5; Zac Dillard, MSU, def. Kevin Beedy, ACU, 6-3, 7-5; Jared King, MSU, def. Evan Puglia, ACU, 2-6, 7-6, 6-2.
     Doubles -- Casper Steenkamp-George Carstens, ACU, def. Gene Ligeon-Rohan Williams, MSU, 8-3; Artin Tafazoli-Kevin Beedy, ACU, def. Brett Emerson-Charles van Swelm, MSU, 8-6; Jason Ray-Evan Puglia, ACU, def. Zac Dillard-Jared King, MSU, 8-6.