FREMONT, Neb. – Midland left no doubt that it is the top team on the GPAC men’s tennis landscape. The Warriors won two of three doubles matches and all six singles competitions in a 7-0 home victory over the Concordia University Men’s Tennis team in Fremont, Neb., on Tuesday (April 27). Both sides entered the matchup with perfect 5-0 GPAC marks.
Midland (13-5, 6-0 GPAC) won the GPAC regular season title outright while Head Coach David DeSimone’s squad (9-5, 5-1 GPAC) ends the regular season in second place in the conference.
“We played some close doubles matches, but we couldn’t quite get the point,” DeSimone said. “Jeremy (Berryman) and Luke (Zoller) played a great doubles match. In singles, we had some close matches, but lacked some firepower to take those today.”
The Bulldogs had been vying for their first conference championship since 1990. Last week’s 4-3 squeaker over Doane kept Concordia unbeaten in the GPAC at the time and set up Tuesday’s showdown. Impressively, the Warriors have won all six of their GPAC matches by scores of 7-0 or 6-1. The only match they surrendered in this go-round was at No. 2 doubles, where Berryman and Zoller eked out the decision over Tycho Janssen and Luca Struffi.
Midland won each of the singles matches in straight sets. At No. 4, Concordia’s Eduardo Rojas nearly forced a third set in a 6-1, 7-5, defeat. The Bulldog singles lineup was also made up of Gregor Lainer at No. 1, Berryman at No. 2, Zoller at No. 3, Isaac Howes at No. 5 and Joe Bindl at No. 6.
The GPAC has announced official pairings for the conference tournament that will be played on Friday and Saturday at Fremont High School. As the No. 2 seed, Concordia will have a bye to the semifinals and will await the winner between third-seeded Doane and sixth-seeded Northwestern. That semifinal match will begin at 2 p.m. CT on Friday.