SPRINGFIELD, Missouri – The Ouachita men's tennis team is headed to the semifinals of the 2025 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association/Great American Conference Championship Tournament following a 4-2 victory over Emporia State on Wednesday.
The Tigers trailed 2-0 after losing two of three doubles matchups and the falling behind in the first singles bout to go final. However, the team rallied with wins from Phil Exner at No. 1, Ramon Strassmann at No. 2, and Yarin Aebi at No. 5 before Moritz Buss clinched the victory at No. 4 with a hard-fought win that needed an extra game and a tiebreaker in the first set and an extra game in the second set to determine the winner.
Ouachita will face either Northwest Missouri State or Southern Arkansas in the semifinals on Thursday at 2 p.m.
NO. 36 OUACHITA 4, NO. 49 EMPORIA STATE 2
DOUBLES
- No. 10 Exner & Strassmann (OUA) def. No. 40 Alexis Mattenberger & Gwendal Mazuay (ESU) 6-3
- Luke West & Anton Sarunic (ESU) def. Elias Lagger & Buss (OUA) 7-6 (7-5)
- Hachem Fahem & Roko Kacer (ESU) def. Aebi & Aaron Osmond (OUA) 6-3
SINGLES
- No. 1 Exner (OUA) def. No. 23 Sarunic (ESU) 6-1, 7-6 (7-2)
- No. 45 Strassmann (OUA) def. Mostafa Elbasnaly (ESU) 6-4, 6-1
- Mattenberger (ESU) def. Lagger (OUA) 6-2, 6-2
- Buss (OUA) def. Diego Calvo (ESU) 7-6 (7-3), 7-5
- Aebi (OUA) def. Kacer (ESU) 6-4, 6-3
- Osmond (OUA) vs. Santiago Torres (ESU) 3-6, 6-4, 2-1 did not finish
