.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
TOLEDO
Falcons Win At Toledo, 7-0; Capture First-Ever Outright MAC Title
April 20, 2002 | Men's Tennis
April 20, 2002
TOLEDO, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University men's tennis team clinched the first outright Mid-American Conference regular-season title in school history Saturday (April 20), posting a 7-0 win over the host University of Toledo. The match was held at the UT Varsity Tennis Courts.
The Falcons improve to 18-10 in dual-match play on the season, and end MAC play with a perfect 5-0 record. UT dropped to 9-12 and 1-4, respectively, with the loss.
The MAC title is the third in school history, and the second in three years under head coach Jay Harris, but the previous two teams to earn such honors -- the 1964 and 2000 squads -- shared the league title.
BGSU has now won 11 consecutive matches over the arch-rival Rockets. Harris is a perfect 8-0 against UT in his head-coaching tenure.
"Obviously, we are extremely excited to have such a great regular season," said Harris. "To go 5-0 in the conference and win the crown outright for the first time ever is a great achievement, especially considering what we've gone through.
"Our guys have just stayed together during this time. It is a close-knit group, and today was another testament to that. Toledo came out and battled us, but we just played well all day long.
"Toledo has thrown some pretty good teams at us, especially in the last four years, and we have been able to beat them. It's always good to beat your rival.
"That was a good match for us to have at the end of the season. After clinching a share of the MAC yesterday, we didn't have any kind of a letdown, basically because we were playing our rival.
"This match will definiately prepare us for the MAC Tournament, and of course our biggest goal is to win the league tournament. We will enter the tournament as the number-one seed for the first time ever, and we will be ready to go."
The Falcons won the doubles point to open the match, with the team of senior Vitek Wild and junior Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo posting an 8-2 win at the top flight. At the middle level, junior Geoff Hiscox and sophomore Joel Carney downed their Rocket foes by an 8-4 count.
BGSU swept the singles portion, led by Hiscox at the top flight. The junior downed UT's Dipesh Rao in three sets.
"Geoff Hiscox made another statement in his bid to become MAC Player of the Year," said Harris. "He finished MAC play undefeated in both singles and doubles."
Wild and Lopez-Acevedo posted two-set sweeps at the second and third singles flights, respectively. BGSU's other singles winners, all in straight sets, were Carney (flight #4), freshman Ian Bliss (#5) and senior Mike Kossoff (#6).
Carney now has a total of 50 wins this year, leading the team in that category. He has a team-high 25 doubles victories, and also has 25 singles wins to tie him with Kossoff for the team lead. Carney's win total ties him for third on the BGSU single-season list, matching the total amassed by Hiscox last year. Wild holds the school record, with 55 wins in 1998-99.
The Carney/Hiscox doubles duo now is 18-4 this season, and went 5-0 in MAC play. Hiscox moved past Joel Terman (1994-97) into fifth place on the BGSU career list with 139 combined wins.
Lopez-Acevedo has moved into a tie for eighth place on that same list, with 132 combined career wins. Wild, of course, holds the school records in all career categories, with 193 total wins (96 singles, 87 doubles).
Hiscox (47) and Lopez-Acevedo (44) rank second and third, respectively, on the team in wins this year.
The Falcons will head to Buffalo, N.Y., for the MAC Championships on Thursday through Saturday (April 25-27).
Bowling Green 7, Toledo 0
UT Varsity Tennis Courts - Toledo, Ohio
Singles 1 - Geoff Hiscox (BGSU) def. Dipesh Rao 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 2 - Vitek Wild (BGSU) def. Pete Baghdati 7-6, 6-2 3 - Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo (BGSU) def. Kahlid Al Nabhani 6-4, 6-1 4 - Joel Carney (BGSU) def. Tony Tran 6-3, 6-1 5 - Ian Bliss (BGSU) def. Matt Llewellyn 6-1, 6-2 6 - Mike Kossoff ( BGSU) def. Mirsad Begic 6-2, 7-6Doubles 1 - Lopez-Acevedo/Wild (BGSU) def. Baghdati/Llewellyn 8-2 2 - Carney/Hiscox (BGSU) def. Tran/Al Nabhani 8-4 3 - Rao/Wojtkowski (UT) def. Bliss/Milos Jirout 9-7
Records Bowling Green: 18-10 overall (5-0 Mid-American Conference) Toledo: 9-12 (1-4 MAC)
