The Elon University men's tennis team claimed its fifth Southern Conference regular season championship in the last nine years with a Wednesday win.
“I am proud to see this team compete the way it did and to be rewarded with a championship,” said Elon head coach Michael Leonard. “Now we have to get ready for the conference tournament because we know we still have work to do.”
The title is Elon’s fifth regular season championship in the last nine years. The win also gives the 44th-ranked Phoenix a perfect 9-0 record in SoCon play. This marks the second time in program history Elon has accomplished the feat. The 2007 squad went 9-0 in conference action in Leonard’s third season as head coach of the Phoenix.
Elon was close to winning the doubles point before the rain came, but the long delay didn’t have an impact on the pairings of Stefan Fortmann and Juan Madrid on court No. 3 and Cameron Silverman and Jordan Kaufman on court No. 1. Fortmann and Madrid needed just one point after the rain delay to clinch an 8-3 win while Silverman and Kaufman finished a break, then proceeded to serve for the set to win 8-3.
As the match turned to singles, Madrid struggled on court No. 6 and fell 6-1, 6-1 to allow the Mountaineers to tie it at one, but Elon took over from there.
Silverman finished just minutes after with a 6-0, 6-0 sweep on court No. 1, then Kaufman topped Jack Maddocks 6-3, 6-1 on court No. 5 to pull Elon within a point of the title.
Brian Kowalski clinched the match for the Phoenix with a 6-1, 6-3 win on court No. 4 against Daniel Hoang. The junior also started the season by clinching Elon’s upset of No. 7 Duke on January 10 with a three-set win against Raphael Hemmeler.
Fortmann increased the lead to 5-1 with a 6-3, 6-1 win on court No. 2. He was shortly followed by Robert Lindgren when he won in a super tiebreaker on court No. 3, 6-7, 6-3, 1-0 (10-7) to give Elon the 6-1 victory.
Elon will play its final match of the regular season on Saturday, April 12, at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center against East Carolina. The match is scheduled for 1 p.m. and Elon will hold Senior Day to honor Silverman.