Bowling Green State University Athletics
Second-Seeded Falcons Prepare For MAC Championships
April 24, 2000 | Men's Tennis
April 24, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green men's tennis team posted two Mid-American Conference wins last weekend to earn a MAC regular-season co-championship. The Falcons of coach Jay Harris, 15-7 in dual-match play, finished with a 5-1 MAC record.
BGSU now prepares for this weekend's MAC Championships, which will be hosted by Toledo. The Falcons, seeded second for the league tourney, will face seventh-seeded Buffalo in Thursday's first round, beginning at 9:00 a.m.
The league tourney, hosted by Toledo, runs through Saturday (April 29).
THE ROAD TO THE TITLE: BGSU entered the final weekend of the regular season needing to defeat both Eastern Michigan and Toledo, and needing a Western Michigan win over Ball State to create a three-way tie for the MAC title. The Falcons won both of their matches, and WMU recorded a 4-3 victory over BSU. Those results left the Falcons, Broncos and Cardinals with identical 5-1 records in league play.
According to the MAC office, the first tiebreaker is head-to-head play, and all three teams went 1-1 against the other two teams. The next tiebreaker is results against the other MAC teams, in order, from top to bottom. All three teams went 1-0 against each of the teams ranked fourth through seventh. So, the seedings for the MAC Championships were determined via conference call Monday afternoon. Western Michigan got the first seed, with BGSU seeded second and Ball State third.
FIRST TITLE SINCE 1964: The Falcons' MAC regular-season title is the first of any kind by the men's tennis program since the 1964 team tied with Miami for the league title. That Falcon squad, coached by Bob Keefe, went 15-0 in dual-match play.
MAC TOURNAMENT MATCHUPS: In addition to the BGSU-Buffalo matchup at 9:00 a.m. Thursday (April 27), fourth-seeded Toledo will face #5 Northern Illinois in a 9:00 a.m. match. Third-seeded Ball State will meet #6 Eastern Michigan in a 1:00 p.m. match that day, with top-seeded Western Michigan drawing a bye.
Friday's semifinal round will feature the UT-NIU winner against WMU at 9:00 a.m., and the BGSU-UB winner against the BSU-EMU survivor at 1:00 p.m.
Saturday's championship is scheduled for 1:00 P.M.
MAC REGULAR-SEASON STANDINGS:
Team (Overall)______________MAC 1-Western Michigan (13-8)___5-1 2-Bowling Green (15-7)______5-1 3-Ball State (15-8)_________5-1 4-Toledo (8-12)_____________3-3 5-Northern Illinois (7-14)__2-4 6-Eastern Michigan (8-15)___1-5 7-Buffalo (8-12)____________0-6 (teams listed by seeding for MAC Championships)
LAST WEEK: The Falcons won every flight in a 7-0 victory at Eastern Michigan Friday (April 21). The dual was held at the Chippewa Racket Club in Ypsilanti, Mich.
BGSU won all six singles matches, with straight-set wins in five of those contests, and the Falcons swept all three doubles matches as well. Freshman Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo was victorious at the top singles level, while the other singles winners - in order - were sophomores Vitek Wild and Mike Kossoff, freshman Micael Lopez-Acevedo, sophomore Ed Kuresman and junior Brandon Gabel.
The Gabel/Wild team won at the top doubles flight, while the #2 team of Kuresman and freshman Geoff Hiscox was triumphant as well. The Falcons' third-flight duo of Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo and freshman Peter Gardonyi also won.
In Saturday's Toledo match, the Falcons won at the top five singles flights. Wild won a straight-sets decision over UT's Jorge Morales at the #1 flight, while Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo downed the Rockets' Gernot Kerschbaumer in three sets at the second level. Hiscox, Kossoff and Micael Lopez-Acevedo were winners at flights three through five, respectively.
Kuresman suffered a three-set loss to UT's Dipesh Rao at the sixth flight. Each of the first two sets needed marathon tiebreakers before concluding.
The Brown and Orange swept the three doubles flights, with Wild and Gabel winning in a tiebreaker at the top level, the Hiscox/Kuresman duo emerging victorious at the second flight, and the team of Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo and fellow freshman Gardonyi capturing a win at the third flight.
BGSU's singles lineups included two freshmen, three sophomores and a junior on Friday at EMU, and three frosh and three sophomores in Saturday's win at Toledo.
FALCON QUICK FACTS
1999-2000 RECORDS Overall: 15-7 Mid-American Conference: 5-1 (T-FIRST)NEXT ACTION #2-BGSU vs. #7-Buffalo Thursday, April 27 * 9:00 a.m. Toledo, Ohio MAC Championships
FINAL 1998-99 RECORDS Overall: 12-13 Mid-American Conference: 4-3 (Fourth) MAC Championships Finish: Fourth of 8
HEAD COACH - Jay Harris Alma Mater: Cincinnati, 1993 Year at BGSU: Fourth Record at BGSU: 51-40 Year as a head coach: Fourth Overall Career Record: 51-40
BGSU ATHLETICS WEB SITE www.bgsufalcons.com
