Pensacola, FL (May 15th 1999) --- AASU Men's Tennis team fell in the Semi-Finals of the NCAA II National Championships to second seeded Barry University (FL) by the score of 5-2. In a match lasting 4 1/2 hours Barry led from start to finish and hard as they fought the Pirates could never quite catch up. The Pirates will now contest the traditional 3rd/4th place match-up with home team the University of West Florida, while Barry advances to the Championship game to face 6- time defending national champions Lander University (SC)
In doubles action the Buccaneers gained a huge 2-1 advantage having come from match point down at #2 to take the point 7-5 in a tie-breaker. AASU took #1 doubles with a tough 8-6 decision by Stefan Wirtz and Christian Witt over Hebert Bende and Kay Spindler. This win brought the Pirates level at 1-1 after Lior Chalbianski and Jean Max Mangones had downed Per Liwgren and Blaise Tribolet 8-5 at #3 doubles. The contest at #2 was 90 minutes of fluctuating momentum in an exceedingly tense and fiery match-up. Barry's team of Iphton Louis and David Cardozo had initially surged to a 6-3 lead, however strong returning and determination by AASU's Jens Garberding and Christopher Petersen had brought them level at 6-6. At this point it looked as though they may blow right past Louis and Cardozo as they held 3 break points at 0-40 on Cardozo's serve. However the resourceful Barry combo pulled that game out to regain some momentum. Christopher Petersen held confidently to make it 7-7 and then with a flurry of winning returns AASU pushed themselves to an 8-7 lead with Garberding to serve. In a somewhat shaky game by both teams Garberding and Petersen held 1 match point which was extinguished by a solid return from Cardozo. Advancing into the tie-break each point was increasingly significant. Louis and Cardozo took an early mini-break and carried through the breaker to take it 7-5 and give Barry a crucial advantage going into singles.
The singles matches were equally hard fought, although it seemed as if the doubles experience had proved too much for Garberding and Petersen. At #4 singles Barry's experienced Lior Chalbianski executed perfectly and beat Garberding 6-0,6-2. Soon after Christopher Petersen fell uncharacteristically to Alan Murray 6-0,6-1. This put AASU in a 4-1 hole, but they weren't ready to relinquish the match that quickly. At this point Christian Witt led Iphton Louis by a set and was even in the second, Stefan Wirtz was in a dogfight at #2, having lost the first, but up by a break in the second, Blaise Tribolet was cruising at a set and 3-3 at #3 and Dave Webley had lost a tough 12-10 tie-break in the first set to David Cardozo but led 4-0 in the second set. The Pirates sensed they had a chance, but each match was very evenly balanced. Dave Webley took the second set and immediately broke against an increasingly tired Cardozo at #6 singles. Barry bounced back by capturing the second sets at #1 and #3, which was followed by Stefan Wirtz serving out the second set against Spindler. In a sprint to the finish, Christian Witt sealed the match at #1, with a 6-1,6-7(6),6-3 victory over hard hitting Louis. AASU's #3 Blaise Tribolet was clearly tiring though against former NCAA II's top ranked player Herbert Bende and try as he might just couldn't quite swing the match back his way. Bende broke for a second time to round out the match with a 3-6,6-3,6-3 victory, at which point Dave Webley led a severely cramping, but crafty David Cardozo 4-3 in the third and Barry's Kay Spindler led Stefan Wirtz 5-3 in the third, but was down 0-30 on his serve. The Pirates fought all the way to the bitter end and could not have performed much better pushing last years finalist to the limit.
Afterwards Coach Simon Earnshaw said, "I don't think we could have played a better match overall today, the guys came out from the beginning and just gave their all. The doubles point was huge and basically was the difference between the two teams. Jens and Christopher have been struggling for the past month, but they played unreal today, I can only congratulate Louis and Cardozo for their fortitude in taking that match. It really took the wind out of our sails especially Jens and Christopher going into doubles. Christopher has been battling the flu all week and he had nothing left after the doubles. The other singles matches were so close, I feel like we could have had one of the remaining matches but you never know. Bende really stepped up against Blaise, that is the first match Blaise has lost all season in NCAA II, but Bende is a class player and really showed it today. Overall, we played our hearts out, but came up a couple of steps short, so we'll have to wait until next year. I just hope we have energy left to make it competitive against West Florida tomorrow."