Landmark Champions! Juniata Men’s Tennis Defeats Goucher to Take Crown
HUNTINGDON, PA- On a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon at Raffensberger Court, Juniata and Goucher faced off in the men’s tennis Landmark Conference Championship. Despite being down 2-1 after doubles play, the Eagles took four out of five in singles to come away with a 5-3 win and claim the title. It is the first Landmark championship since Juniata joined the conference in the 2007-08 season and its first conference crown overall.
HUNTINGDON, PA- On a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon at Raffensberger Court, Juniata and Goucher faced off in the men's tennis Landmark Conference Championship. Despite being down 2-1 after doubles play, the Eagles took four out of five in singles to come away with a 5-3 win and claim the title. It is the first Landmark championship since Juniata joined the conference in the 2007-08 season and its first conference crown overall.
The one win in doubles came from the duo of Bryan Gregory (Glens Mills, PA/Garnet Valley) and Mike Lifshitz (Worcester, MA/Worcester Academy) at third dubs. The pair defeated Britt Shortle and Josh Goldberg 8-4 to improve to 13-3 overall on the season.
The Eagles tied the match at 2-all with Dean Polisena's (Adelaide, Australia/St. Ignatius) victory in first singles. Polisena defeated Joey Caracappa 6-1, 6-3. Sho Sato (Shiga, Japan/Kansai Gaidai University) fell 6-2, 6-4 to Jack Hodges at third flight as the Gophers went ahead 3-2.
Juniata went up 4-3 as Gregory and Moore both won their matches. Gregory defeated Midori Fujitani 6-2, 6-2 at fourth flight and Moore knocked off Josh Goldberg 6-4, 6-2 at fifth singles.
It came down to Matyas Kohout (Krhanice, Czech Republic/Gymnasium Jizni Mesto) at second singles. With his teammates looking on, Kohout defeated Seth Hoseman 6-4, 6-1 to clinch the match for Juniata and the Eagles rushed the court to celebrate.
Head coach Jason Cohen commended his team for their performance and the hard work that they have put in all season. He admitted it was the Eagles hardest conference match of the season and that they really grinded it out to get the win.
Gregory was named the Tournament MVP. He was the only player on the Eagles to go 8-0 in Landmark singles play during the season and went 4-0 in the playoffs. Gregory was the only Eagle to win twice in the championship match.
The victory gives Juniata the Landmark's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Matchups and locations will be released on Monday afternoon.