The Wildcat tennis teams concluded their fall season over the weekend with four of their players participating in the Division II finals of the USTA/ITA National Small College Championships.
Senior Julia Mongin and sophomores Borja Cortes and Brittney Reed competed in the tournament, but it was junior Hans Hach who had a chance to make school history.
“Hans is a great player, he worked really hard to make it and he deserved it,” Mongin said. “I am glad that he is at ACU and I knew that he could go to all the way to finals.”
Hach reached the championship match where he faced number one ranked Georgi Rumenov of Armstrong Atlantic. After a competitive match, Hach could not hold on as Rumenov took the victory with a 6-2, 6-2 score.
“I knew that I was going to do my best and that no matter who I faced, I was going to give everything I had,” Hach said. “I faced a very good player and he was better than me on that day. But I am happy on how I played overall this year.”
In doubles, Hach and Cortes placed third overall after defeating Concordia’s Daniel Piludu and Andrey Boldarev, 6-3, 6-3, in the third-place match.
“To get third out of the entire nation, feels pretty good,” Cortes said. “I felt we should have been playing for the championship, but you can’t change that. Hans and I had a great season together and I really learned a lot from him.”
For the women, Mongin placed fourth in the singles tournament. She outplayed Drury’s Natalia Kozel in the first-round, 6-2, 6-2, but lost to third-seeded Barbora Krtickova of Armstrong Atlantic, 6-4, 7-6 in the semifinals. Then in the third round match, Florida Tech’s Kristina Huba upset Mongin 6-3, 6-1.
“I was really happy to be able to play nationals for three consecutive years,” Mongin said. “It means a lot to be able to go to nationals and fight hard on the tennis court representing the university and yourself.”
On the doubles end, Mongin and Reed finished fourth after beating their first-round opponents Fanni Varga and Mehak Singh of Southwest Baptist in three sets, 7-6, 6-7, 10-2. They then lost to number one ranked Annie Hwang and Sherry Liu of BYU-Hawaii.
“We really had fun and played our best,” Mongin said. “We had a really good match against BYU Hawaii in the semis, even if the score does not reflect our performance. It was a pleasure to play with Brittney, she is a great player and I was happy to be able to share nationals with her.”
The teams are now preparing for their spring season. The 2013 spring schedule will be released late November.
