Championship Central | Standings
KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Riding a six-match win streak, the No. 3 seed Kutztown University men's tennis team travels to Bloomsburg University to take on No. 2 seed Edinboro University in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) semifinals, Friday, Apr. 20, at the Burt Reese Tennis Center in Bloomsburg, Pa. Match time is set for 1 p.m.
Playing their best tennis of the season, the Golden Bears (10-3 overall, 3-2 PSAC) have positive momentum at the right time, heading into the postseason for the second consecutive year and ninth in the last 10.
KU is coming off a 5-4 victory over Harford Community College in its regular season home finale yesterday, Wednesday, Apr. 18. Last weekend, Kutztown had an impressive win against then regionally-ranked (No. 8) Virginia State (Apr. 14), which ranked one spot below No. 7 KU. Kutztown appeared at No. 7 in the NCAA Atlantic Regional Poll for the third straight week when the poll was released yesterday.
Kutztown has an experienced lineup at both singles and doubles. Seven members competed in last year's semifinal round match vs. the then-top seed Fighting Scots. Seniors
Nikolay Kodinov (Plovdiv, Bulgaria/Model High School of Mathematics),
Martin Munoz (Las Palmas, Spain/Claret (Post)),
Joan Oliver Perez (Andratx, Spain/IES Baltasar Porcel),
Gabriel Nogara Souza (Curitiba, Brazil/Dom Bosco) and
David Nunez Contreras (Madrid, Spain/Mater Immaculata), along with sophomores
Josh Carl (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) and
Benjamin Kelly (Medina, Ohio/Highland) are all back and eager to push KU to its first conference championship since the 2012-13 season.
No. 5 Edinboro (9-8, 4-1) won the previous match this season 7-2 back on March 24. The two teams have met in the PSAC Tournament four out of the last five years that KU qualified for the postseason, including a 5-2 match-win for Kutztown to win the PSAC championship on Apr. 21, 2013.
The Maroon and Gold feature three PSAC Athlete of the Week award winners this season, with Carl taking home the honors this week, joining Munoz and junior
Nolan Perugini (Reading, Pa./Exeter Township) as previous winners earlier this month.
Freshman
Jason Listmeier (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown East) is another option for head coach
Shari Bucklin-Webber, having won his last four singles matches, including at No. 6 singles vs. Virginia State and in yesterday's season finale win over Harford.
Defending PSAC champion Mercyhurst (14-2, 5-0) is the top seed, followed by Edinboro and Kutztown at two and three respectively, and host Bloomsburg (5-8, 2-3 PSAC) is the fourth seed.
The championship match is scheduled for 12 p.m. on Saturday, April 21.
Kutztown is second all-time in PSAC titles with 11, behind Bloomsburg's 22. Edinboro has claimed six crowns, while Mercyhurst won its first last year. KU leads the conference in individual singles (6) and doubles (7) champions.
