PSAC Championship Central KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University men's tennis team has one again proven it is one of the elite programs in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), and it gets the chance to cement that image and make a run at the program's 12th conference title this weekend at Bloomsburg University.
The four-team championship tournament starts with the semifinals on Friday, April 24 at 3 p.m. at Bloomsburg's Burt Reese Tennis Center (
Directions). The second-seeded Golden Bears (14-4) will take on the third-seeded Mercyhurst University Lakers (12-5) in a rematch from last's week 5-4 Kutztown victory on the same courts in Bloomsburg.
The winner of the Kutztown-Mercyhurst match will take on the winner of top-seeded Edinboro University and fourth-seeded West Chester University in the PSAC Championship on Saturday, April 25 at 11 a.m.
Kutztown has won 11 PSAC titles in its history, the most of the competing teams in this year's playoff field and the second-most in conference history behind Bloomsburg's 22. Despite the double-digit difference, the Golden Bears have certainly been the class of the conference for the last 15 years, as all 11 of their titles have come since the turn of the millennium.
Kutztown and Mercyhurst last met in the postseason in the PSAC semifinals in 2013 in a 5-1 KU win in Indiana, Pa. In last week's 5-4 Kutztown victory, KU needed to win the final two matches for the come-from-behind victory. It had two freshmen step up and shine under pressure in a pair of singles victories to keep Kutztown undefeated in conference play at the time.
The freshmen class of Kutztown has become an excellent complement to its senior leadership this season. Its senior trio of
Varun Desai,
Ken Beebe and
Matt Maguire has turned in career seasons in its final run at the title in the Maroon and Gold. They have been sharp in both singles and doubles action this season and hope to cap their careers with their second PSAC title in three years.
Desai holds a 17-6 singles record this year, two shy of his career-high from last season, and a career-high-tying 19-3 record in doubles action. He is a PSAC singles and two-time PSAC doubles champion and has been Kutztown's full-time No. 1 singles player this year. At No. 2 doubles, he and Beebe have thrived in their first year as partners with a 16-2 record. They are one win shy of moving onto Kutztown's career leaderboard for doubles wins in a season. For his career, Desai is tied for ninth in school history with 118 career combined victories.
Maguire has been steady at the second flight of singles with a career-best 16-7 record, including an unblemished 5-0 mark in PSAC play. He enters the tournament on a five-match winning streak in singles, and will look to snap a two-match skid at No. 1 doubles with partner
Rich Lichtenwalner. The duo fell in a tight battle against Mercyhurst last weekend, 8-6.
For his career, Maguire enters the tournament with 91 career combined victories.
Freshman
Joan Oliver Perez is expected to compete at No. 3 singles. He is 13-6, 4-1 in the PSAC in singles play. In doubles, he holds a 9-2 record but was not featured in doubles action in the last three PSAC matches.
Lichtenwalner, a junior, could be placed into the postseason singles rotation, along with his No. 1 doubles match with Maguire. He is 9-7 in singles play this season. Freshman
Gabriel Nogara Souza has won 12 singles matches with three matches of PSAC experience. He has teamed with fellow freshman
Indi Reverte as of late in the third flight of doubles play for a 4-3 record, 2-1 in the PSAC.
Reverte has given Kutztown a great option at No. 6 singles. Not only has he posted a 9-4 record overall in singles, he went 4-0 at the sixth flight and 4-1 in PSAC action. He has won eight of his last 10 matches and enters the tournament on a five-match singles winning streak.
Following the PSAC Tournament, the selection for the NCAA Atlantic Region Tournament will be announced on Tuesday, April 28 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time on
www.ncaa.com. KU was ranked sixth in the most recent poll, seven teams qualify for the tournament, and this weekend's conference championship could play a significant factor in which teams advance and which teams are left out.
