Blue Raiders extinguish the Flames for 6th CUSA tennis title

Written by Jacob Burgess

Michael Jordan had two separate three-peat to win six NBA titles and Tom Brady won seven

Super Bowls.

Well, Middle Tennessee State men’s tennis six-peated as Conference USA champions,

beating Liberty 4-0.

“This year has been a lot of hurdles and adversity so it's a big sigh of relief as the

conference was a steppingstone for us,” said head coach Jimmy Borendame.

In a rematch of last year’s CUSA final, MTSU cruised this year winning the doubles point on

court two and three.

Rostislav Halfinger and Jakub Kroslak won 7-5 while Shu Matsouka and Igor Mondou

Berranger won 6-3. Liberty’s court one duo of Joaquim Almeida and Siwanat Auytayakul

picked up the win against Karim Al-Amin and Ondrej Horak.

“We had more willpower at the end of the season,” Al-Amin said. “We switched double

teams around in the end to see who was working with who in a better way and which teams

had the most chemistry.”

In singles it was the top three for MTSU to claim victory with Kroslak, Horak and Al-Amin all

winning in straight sets.

Kroslak returned to the lineup just before the conference tournament and is undefeated in

his three matches since then.

The Blue Raiders will now wait for the NCAA selection show on March 28, to learn who they

will face in the first round.

“I’ve never weighed our success by the conference tournament, we have always had bigger

goals to do damage in the NCAA tournament,” Borendame said.

Last year in the NCAA tournament, MTSU beat Georgia Tech 4-1 in the round of 64 before

falling to Mississippi State, 0-4 in the next round.

The Blue Raiders have yet to make it past the second round of the NCAA tournament in

team history.

There are tournament sites that provide the opportunity to win a first round match if not a

second-round match up, Al-Amin said.