No. 1 Pirates Advance To NCAA Championship Match

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. - The No. 1-ranked and defending DII national champion Armstrong Atlantic State men's tennis team will play for a possible back-to-back national title on Saturday after closing out a 5-1 win over No. 6 Hawaii Pacific on Friday at Sanlando Park.

Doubles play began with the Pirates (29-1) taking an early break in all three matches. Rafael Array and Tim Johannsen closed out an 8-4 win over Hendrik Bode and Sebastian Bader at No. 2 doubles to give AASU a point. But the Hawaii Pacific (16-5) team of Aleksandar Markov and Anton Samuilau erased a 7-4 deficit to pick up a 9-7 win over Eudaldo Bonet and Akos Torok at No. 3 doubles.

That threw all the attention at No. 1 singles, where fifth-ranked Paul Bishop and Mikk Irdoja fought off two match points during a tiebreaker to take the match over Daniel Luedi and Nikola Petrov, 9-8 (9-7).

The Pirates then got off to a great start in singles with five out of six first-set wins. No. 2-ranked Bonet gave AASU its first singles point with a 6-2, 6-4 win over No. 28-ranked Petrov at No. 1 singles. Johannsen then followed with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Markov at No. 6 singles. No. 50-ranked Paul Fitzgerald (pictured) followed with a 6-2, 6-4 win over No. 37-ranked Luedi at No. 4 singles to clinch the match and send AASU into the finals.

AASU has now won 60 of its last 61 matches dating back over the last two seasons, and will be making their second-ever berth in the national championship match.

No. 2-ranked Barry - a 5-3 winner over Concordia (N.Y.) - awaits the Pirates at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday in a rematch of the national championship from a season ago in Houston.