ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - The Ouachita Tigers men's tennis team defeated Oklahoma Baptist by a final of 9-0 to claim their third regular season GAC title. Ouachita improves to 4-0 in conference play this season. The last time the Tigers went undefeated in regular-season conference play was 2013, also the last year they won the regular season title.
The four-time defending conference tournament champs swept the Bison in doubles play, 3-0.
Vitor Oliveira and
Luis Chab successfully defended their top-20 ITA double ranking with a 9-7 win over the #1 Bison doubles team of Aguilera and Castelo-Branco.
In singles competition, the Tigers took five of the six matches in straight sets, including Oliveira's 6-2, 6-1 win over Aguilera. Oliveira is now 3-1 in conference singles matches in 2016. Lennart Lonneman defeated Castelo-Branco with a 13-11 tiebreaker set.
Coach
Craig Ward was pleased with the focus his men displayed today. He praised their desire to achieve one of their season-long goals.
"We knew if we won today it would make us the conference regular season champions so we wanted to win very badly," Coach Ward said. "We are excited about being the conference regular season champions. Our next goal is to be ready for the conference tournament. I feel very good about where we are going into this part of the season."
Entering the GAC tournament, the top-seeded Tigers will face #4 East Central. The match is set for 10:30 a.m. on Friday, April 22 in Bentonville, Ark. For more information on the GAC Tennis Championships, click
here.
#26 Ouachita Baptist vs Oklahoma Baptist
