The ACU men’s tennis team played its final matches at home against their soon-to-be-former conference foe, Oral Roberts. The Wildcats defeated Oral Roberts 5-2 on Friday to keep them winless in conference play.
The men played three matches to end the season against Texas A&M Corpus Christi, St. Edwards and Oral Roberts in which they went 2-1. The Wildcats were handed their first conference loss of the season to the undefeated Corpus Christi squad. They followed the loss with two straight wins ending the season with a 14-10 record overall and 5-1 in conference play.
“We are very happy with the first year results, which I believe are directly related to our previous tough Div. I scheduling, even though we were Div. II,” assistant coach John Walker said. “We as coaches and the guys team knew they could compete with anyone in our conference. They embraced the challenge and confidence grew as a team each and every week.”
Coach Walker sees the success of this season overflowing into the next season for the Wildcats.
“We will add some players and current players will mature and improve over the summer, so we look forward to what challenges next season brings,” Walker said. “The success of this season will carry over with those returners and rub off on the new guys. We as coaches and the players will be looking forward to making another great run at the conference championship next season.”
The Wildcats jumped out to a 3-0 lead against Oral Roberts, but ACU No. 1 Borja Cortes dropped his match while freshmen Nico Agritelley and sophomores Jason Proctor and Marco Belsley lost their second set after being up 1-0. If they all lost the Golden Eagels would have won the match.
Bensley again pulls through in the clutch and won his match in the third set, giving the Wildcats the victory.
Sophomore Jason Proctor said their performance this season is a confidence booster heading into the post-season.
“Our strong results give us confidence going into the post-season,” he said. “However, 5-1 is just a number, and those results are in the past. We know we need to focus on the present moment and execute each point just like we have all season.”
ACU will finish its season next weekend in Omaha, Neb., where it will face teams from Nebraska-Omaha, Grand Canyon and New Jersey Tech.
