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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
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Falcons Advance To MAC Championship Match
April 26, 2002 | Men's Tennis
April 26, 2002
BUFFALO, N.Y. - It wasn't easy, but the Bowling Green State University men's tennis team advanced to the title match of the Mid-American Conference Championships. The Falcons posted a 4-2 victory over Northern Illinois University on Friday (April 26) at the UB Tennis Complex in Buffalo, N.Y.
The Falcons, seeded number one in the tourney, advance to the MAC's championship match for the first time, where BGSU will face #2 Ball State. The Cardinals downed #3 Western Michigan by a 4-3 count in Friday's second semifinal.
The winner of the championship match will earn a trip to the NCAA Championships. BGSU has never advanced to the national tournament.
With Friday's win, the Brown and Orange improve to 19-10 on the season, while fourth-seeded Northern Illinois ends its campaign with a dual-match record of 13-10.
As was the case in the teams' regular-season meeting (a 6-1 BGSU win in DeKalb, Ill., on April 13), the Huskies captured the doubles point to take the early lead. All three doubles matches were tightly-contested affairs.
NIU tandems won at each of the top two flights. Raymond van Wasbeek and Aaron Forsberg teamed for an 8-6 win over senior Vitek Wild and junior Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo. At the middle flight, the Huskies' Juan Pablo Barriga and Erick Martinez downed junior Geoff Hiscox and sophomore Joel Carney by a narrow 9-8 result.
The Falcons took the win at the third flight, where sophomore Milos Jirout and freshman Ian Bliss had an 8-6 triumph over Jon Perlman and Paul Glendenning.
In singles action, four of the matches were decided in straight sets, with three of those contests going to Falcon competitors. Lopez-Acevedo, Jirout and Carney all dispatched of their opponents, with only Carney losing more than four games.
Lopez-Acevedo downed Martinez at the third flight (6-2, 6-2), while Jirout posted a 6-2, 6-1 win over Forsberg at the fourth level. At flight number five, Carney bested Perlman by a 6-4, 6-2 result.
Hiscox lost his top-flight match to van Wasbeek, 6-2, 6-1, meaning the Falcons held a 3-2 lead with two matches still in progress.
Wild, the winningest player in Falcon history, got one of the biggest wins over his career, rallying after losing the first set for a victory over Barriga (2-6, 7-6, 6-2). Wild's triumph clinched the match and propelled the Brown and Orange to the title match.
Senior Mike Kossoff's match at the sixth flight did not finish.
"We are very excited about making it to the finals for the first time ever," said BGSU head coach Jay Harris. "But, we definitely came here on a mission, which was to win this tournament, and we are still focused on that.
"We needed to make two steps, and we've now made the first one. We are happy to get through this one, because Northern Illinois is a very dangerous team.
"We actually played better in doubles than we did in our first meeting with them, and we were a couple points away from winning the doubles point. But, they took it from us, and provided us with a big challenge. We came out and won four singles, and were up in a fifth match.
"Geoff was beaten by a hot player, and really didn't have his best effort. But, the rest of the team really rallied. Nicolas, Milos and Joel all won fairly easily, and played very well in doing so.
"Vitek had a tough first set, but battled back like a true senior. I am very proud of him, to win that second-set in a tiebreaker and then clinch the match for us with a third-set win. I mean, that was huge. If he doesn't win that second set, it would have come down to Mike's match.
"But, I felt pretty good at the end, given that we had two seniors out there on the court in Mike and Vitek. They were kind of holding the life of our program in their hands, but we felt pretty comfortable. Those are the two guys that we would want out there; they've meant everything to Bowling Green tennis in the last four years. And, for them to be responsible for us winning or possibly being finished, they came up huge. Vitek, of course, played great in the third set, and Mike was a couple points away from winning his match. I was very proud of those guys and the way they battled through their matches. Obviously, we needed that effort to move on.
"Now, we have Ball State tomorrow. They won a thriller with Western Michigan today. We're ready to go. We're ready to battle these guys down to the wire. We're feeling good about being in the final, and about battling those guys tomorrow. We're gonna have a great time and enjoy the whole day and the whole spirit of the tournament."
The Falcons and Ball State will meet in Saturday's (April 27) championship match, which is slated to begin at 1:00 p.m.
Bowling Green 4, Northern Illinois 2
Singles 1 - Raymond van Wasbeek (NIU) def. Geoff Hiscox 6-2, 6-1 2 - Vitek Wild (BGSU) def. Juan Pablo Barriga 2-6, 7-6, 6-2 3 - Nicolas Lopez-Acevedo (BGSU) def. Erick Martinez 6-2, 6-2 4 - Milos Jirout (BGSU) def. Aaron Forsberg 6-2, 6-1 5 - Joel Carney (BGSU) def. Jon Perlman 6-4, 6-2 6 - Mike Kossoff (BGSU) vs. David Pickel (NIU), DNFDoubles 1 - van Wasbeek/Forsberg (NIU) def. Lopez-Acevedo/Wild 8-6 2 - Barriga/Martinez (NIU) def. Carney/Hiscox 9-8 3 - Jirout/Ian Bliss (BGSU) def. Perlman/Paul Glendenning 8-6
