SPRINGFIELD, Missouri – The Ouachita men's tennis team fell to ninth-ranked Washburn on Friday by a final score of 4-0 to finish as the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association/Great American Conference championship tournament runner-up.
The Tigers will now await to see if they are one of the three at-large selections from the central region for the NCAA Division II tournament. Ouachita was ranked No. 4 in the latest release. The NCAA will announce the tournament field on Monday evening.
In Friday's loss to No. 9 Washburn, the Ichabods won two of three in doubles to take a 1-0 lead into singles. Yarin Aebi and Aaron Osmond earned a convincing doubles win on court three.
In singles, Washburn earned quick wins on courts three and five to go up 3-0. Three of the other four singles matchups went into a third set with the fourth ending in a tight battle in the second set.
The clincher came on court one in a matchup of two of the best in the nation with No. 1 Phil Exner going up against No. 4 Tim Hammes. After a split in the first two sets, Hammes came away with a 6-3 win in the tiebreaker.
NO. 9 WASHBURN 4, NO. 36 OUACHITA 0
DOUBLES
- No. 1 Hammes & Matthew Earle (WU) def. No. 10 Exner & Ramon Strassmann (OUA) 6-4
- No. 23 Tommaso Cecchetti & Vaclav Schneider (WU) def. Moritz Buss & Elias Lagger (OUA) 6-3
- Aebi & Osmond (OUA) def. Moritz Pieper & Pavlos Parson (WU) 6-2
SINGLES
- No. 4 Hammes (WU) def. No. 1 Exner (OUA) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
- No. 45 Strassmann (OUA) vs. No. 8 Schneider (WU) 4-6, 6-4, 1-3 did not finish
- No. 65 Parson (WU) def. Lagger (OUA) 6-0, 6-3
- Buss (OUA) vs. Cecchetti (WU) 1-6, 6-2, 4-3 did not finish
- Zinovii Nahirniak (WU) def. Aebi (OUA) 6-1, 6-1
- Osmond (OUA) vs. Earle (WU) 6-7 (3-7), 4-5 did not finish
