KUTZTOWN, Pa. -- The Kutztown University men's tennis team prevailed in a back-and-forth match with rival West Chester, scoring a 5-2 victory at the Keystone Courts on Tuesday afternoon to secure its first PSAC Championship tournament birth since 2018.
Every point the Golden Bears won in the match, the visiting Golden Rams made them work for.
In doubles,
Dang Nguyen (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam/) and
Henrique Rocha (Jaticua, Brazil/Escola SEB Maceio) collected a 6-2 win at No. 1 against Brady Burns and Felix Weber but the remaining two matches each went to a tiebreaker.
Kutztown (13-4, 2-3 PSAC) snagged the available point when
Emmitt Robinson (Ingersoll, Ontario/Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute) and
Linus Vennekold (Laatzen, Germany/) defeated Andres Urrutia and Mateus DeVasconcellos 7-6 (3) at No. 2. It proved crucial as West Chester took third doubles by the same score.
Despite entering the match with just one win on the season, West Chester (1-14, 0-4 PSAC) refused to go away.
The Golden Bears trailed early in singles at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 but found the points they needed to take the victory in their regular season finale.
Vennekold and Nguyen put the Maroon and Gold on the brink of victory with straight set wins at No. 6 and No. 1. Vennekold beat Sam Robertson 6-1, 6-0, while Nguyen turned back Lucas Henke in the top flight match 6-1, 6-2 to make it 3-0 Kutztown.
Weber held off
Joaquin Perez (Pachuca, Mexico/Escuela Americana) in three sets at No. 4, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, but
Nikita Safonov (Podolsk, Russia/) sent KU to the postseason shortly thereafter when he triumphed over Urrutia 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2.
DeVasconcellos topped Robinson 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 at No. 5, and Rocha picked up Kutztown's final point with a 7-6 (8), 3-6, 13-11 marathon win over Burns at No. 3.
"I'm really proud of these guys," said first-year head coach
Pete Smith. "West Chester put up a tremendous fight and did not make this easy for us. We played really good tennis and got clutch contributions from multiple players today. We're going to enjoy this victory for now and get ready for the postseason."
Kutztown will be the No. 4 seed in the upcoming PSAC Championship and square off against top-seed and nationally ranked Edinboro in the semifinals at Bloomsburg's Burt Reese Tennis Center on Friday, May 2, at a time yet to be announced.
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