Anderson Rallies Past Queens In NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament

SAVANNAH, Ga. - No. 29-ranked Anderson University overcame a 3-0 doubles deficit to knock off Queens, 5-4, in the first round of the 2011 NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Championships on Sunday afternoon at Bacon Park in Savannah.

The Trojans (14-8) advance in the Southeast Regional to face top seed and No. 2-ranked Armstrong Atlantic State University on Monday morning at 10:00 a.m.

The Royals (15-3), making just their second-ever NCAA appearance and first since 1999, opened up strong in doubles by sweePing all three matches. The No. 12-ranked duo of Christian Lee Daigle and Raahil Dhruva bested No. 15-ranked Stan Atema and Daniel Gonzalez, 8-5, at No. 1 doubles, while Ignacio Casili and Gustavo Munhoz beat Jerome Branker and Trey Halbauer, 8-2, at No. 2 doubles. The duo of Josh Bloch and David Hannon completed the sweep with an 8-2 win over Deni Mehagic and Ilyan Zakharov at No. 3 doubles.

Anderson started the rally in singles by taking first sets in four of six matches, then quickly getting the other two matches into third sets. The Trojans' first singles point came at No. 4 singles when Gonzalez beat Munhoz, 6-1, 6-1, then Anderson's Loic Ambrose beat Queens' Chris Kennedy, 6-2, 7-5, at No. 6 singles.

All four of the other singles matches went to third sets. Queens picked up a fourth point as Casili outlasted Halbauer, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, at No. 5 singles, but moments later Mehagic beat Hannon, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3, at No. 2 singles.

At No. 1 singles, Atema completed a 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 win over Daigle to tie the score at 4-4 and set up a battle at No. 3 singles for the match as Zakharov and Bloch were just entering the third set of their match.

Zakharov defeated Bloch, 7-6, 4-6, 6-0 to clinch the match for the Trojans and send Anderson into the second round.

Anderson will meet the host Pirates for the second time this season - Armstrong collected a 9-0 win over the Trojans back on February 13th.