Liberty Men’s Tennis Falls Short In CUSA Finals

The Liberty University Men’s Tennis team punched its ticket to the Conference USA (CUSA) finals after defeating Jacksonville State University 4-2 but ultimately fell to Middle Tennessee State University 4-0 in the final matchup of the competition April 18-20. 

 The No. 2 seed Flames first took the court on a windy Saturday afternoon to battle the No. 3 seed Jax State Gamecocks. Fans piled into the stands to cheer on the Flames as the doubles matches began. Senior Joaquim Almeida and freshman Siwanat Auytayakul took a quick 6-3 victory on court one over Jax State sophomores David Krasner and Marko Milosavljevic. 

 On court two, junior Carl Roothman and redshirt senior Trey Stinchcomb fought against the Gamecocks, bringing the score to 5-4. The Jax State duo of sophomore Zach Murphy and redshirt junior Lucius Soller mounted a comeback and usurped the Flames at the end of the match 7-5.  

Court three was a deciding factor for Jax State as freshman Timo De Visser and senior Logan Haga pulled away early in the match, leading 4-1. The Liberty duo of redshirt freshman Ernst Gouws and sophomore Matija Samardzic caught up and tied the score 4-4 and eventually 5-5. The Gamecocks extinguished the fire by taking the second win 7-5 and stealing the crucial doubles point going into the singles. 

Redshirt sophomore Chase Robinson was the first to finish his singles match, dominating both sets 6-2 and 6-1 against Jax State junior Alin Fatu. This quick win from court five tied the overall score 1-1 and gave Liberty an energy surge.  

Almeida followed suit, winning his sets on court one 6-4 and 6-3 over De Visser, giving Liberty a 2-1 lead.  

Sophomore Rodrigo Santiago Arraez earned a challenging third point for Liberty. Krasner made Arraez run all over the court, returning shots from every square inch of playing area. He won the first set 6-2, but this did not deter Arraez as he came back to win 6-2 in the following set. Both sophomores gave it their all in set three, but it was Arraez who took the victory 6-4.   

Liberty needed one final point to secure its route to the finals. Jax State notched another point on court three in the closest match of the game as Milosavljevic and Auytayakul fought to the end. Auytayakul triumphed 6-4 in the first set, but ultimately Milosavljevic overcame winning 6-3 and 6-4 in the last two.  

Roothman was the deciding factor in Liberty’s win as he and fifth year Charlie Penman traded blows on the court. The Flame won a tight 7-5 battle in the first set, but Penman returned the favor in a 7-6 (8-6) tiebreaker the following set. The fans cheered as Roothman dominated the third set 6-2, which gave the Flames the victory 4-2 after a nearly four-hour semifinal match. 

“They stayed resilient,” Head Coach Derek Schwandt said during a live interview with ESPN+ after the game. “It was a tough doubles point, and we responded well on all six courts in singles, and that’s what you want. That first 20 minutes after doubles, whether you win or lose, it’s huge momentum time in the match.” 

The fans packed the stands the following day to watch the Liberty Flames battle the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders for the CUSA Championship title April 20.  

The doubles matches were strenuous for both ends of the fight. The Middle Tennessee pair of junior Shu Matsuoka and sophomore Igor Mandou Berranger dominated court three, wining 6-3 against Samardzic and Gouws. On court one, Almeida and Auytayakul defeated juniors Karim Al-Amin and Ondrej Horak 6-4. 

All eyes were on court two as Middle Tennessee had the advantage 5-4, but Roothman and Stinchcomb came back to balance the score 5-5. The Blue Raiders dominated the following set and were leading 40-30 in the final set when the Flames duo tied the score 40 all. Despite the charge from the Flames, the Blue Raiders duo of senior Rostislav Halfinger and sophomore Jakub Kroslak retuned a serve out of the way of the two Flames, winning the match 7-5 and giving Middle Tennessee the one-point advantage going into the singles. 

From there, the Blue Raiders ran away with the lead, winning three singles matches to secure the championship win. Middle Tennessee’s first singles point came at the hands of Kroslak, winning 6-3 and 6-2 against Auytayakul. The second point was garnered by Horak on court two, winning 6-1 and 6-4 against Roothman. On court one, Almeida fought valiantly against Al-Amin. 

Almeida fell 6-3 in the first set. 

However, he rallied back, keeping up with the Blue Raider’s intense returns to bring the score to 6-5. At 40 all, the two raced back and forth across the court to get the other to make an error. Almeida returned a rally with force and knocked the ball out of bounds, which gave the final point to Middle Tennessee to win 4-0. 

“We’ve had a lot of growth this season,” Schwandt said. “The biggest take away for me is that we stayed with it. It was a rocky results season, but we stayed with it all the way to the end.” 

The Flames’ season came to an end, finishing with a 11-13 overall record.  

Warden is a sports reporter for the Liberty Champion.