TULSA, Oklahoma – The No. 61-ranked University of Denver men's tennis team (15-7) earned a 4-3 victory over Omaha on Friday in the Summit League semifinals to earn a spot in the Summit League Championship match.
No. 1-seeded Denver will play No. 2 Drake in the Summit League Final after the Bulldogs won, 4-0, over No. 3 North Dakota in the second semifinal on Friday afternoon.
The 2023 Summit League regular-season champion, Denver has now advanced to four consecutive Summit League championship matches and will seek its sixth tournament title.
Doubles:
DU took a 1-0 lead after winning the doubles point with victories in the No. 1 and No. 3 matches. Junior
Peter Sallay and redshirt senior
Anish Sriniketh came back from an early break down to level things at 4-4 before breaking a second time to win the No. 1 matchup.
The two remaining courts went to tiebreaks nearly simultaneously, and it was junior
Nicolas Herrero Cuesta and graduate student
Conner Olsen who finished first with a late minibreak for a 7-5 win in the breaker on court 3.
DU's No. 2 team of sophomore
Daniel Sancho Arbizu and freshman
Raffaello Papajcik were up 5-1 in their tiebreak as well when the doubles point was secured, leaving their match unfinished.
Singles:
Denver went up 2-0 when Herrero Cuesta dropped just three games in his straight-sets win at No. 2 singles. The Summit League Player of the Year broke twice in the first set for 3-1 and 5-2 leads before breaking again in his first two return games of the second set.
Omaha got on the board with a win at No. 5 singles, but Sancho Arbizu put DU back up by two points in a three-set win at No. 1 singles. After losing the first set, he responded with a break in his first return game of the second set before adding a second break for 5-1. The final set followed a similar formula with the Summit League Newcomer of the Year jumping out to a 5-1 lead before closing it out at 6-1.
Omaha leveled things at 3-3 after winning the Nos. 3 and 6 matches within minutes of each other, turning all attention to the third set in No. 4 singles, which had just started. Denver's Sallay broke in the first game and backed it up with a hold for 2-0. With a second break, the DU junior went up 5-1 and eventually closed it out at 6-2.
Up Next:
Denver will play Drake for the league tournament title in the 2023 Summit League Men's Tennis Final on Saturday, April 22, at 10 a.m. CT/9 a.m. MT.
Visit
DenverPioneers.com for complete coverage of all 18 of DU's NCAA Division I sports
Like
Denver Pioneers and
Denver Men's Tennis on Facebook
Follow
@DU_Pioneers and
@DU_MTennis on Twitter
Follow
@DenverPioneers and
@DU_MTennis on Instagram
