DENVER – The No. 63-ranked University of Denver men's tennis team (17-6, 5-0 Summit) advanced to the Summit League championship match with a 5-0 win over Illinois State in the tournament semifinals at Denver Tennis Park on Friday.
 
No. 1-seeded DU eased through doubles before wrapping up Nos. 2, 5 and 6 singles within minutes of each other to clinch the win over No. 4-seeded ISU.
 
Doubles:
Denver's doubles squad lost just three combined games in the two completed matches on its way to clinching the point. Senior Daniel Sancho Arbizu and freshman Theo Coats started things off with a 6-1 win, equaling their result as a doubles team after racing out to a 5-0 lead before their opponents were able to hold for the first time. The Denver duo held easily in the seventh and final game.
 
DU's No. 3 team of juniors Raffaello Papajcik and Ryoma Mishiro clinched the point with a 6-2 win. The first half of the match featured a couple exchanges of breaks before the Pioneers went up 5-2 and served it out in the next game.
 
At No. 1 doubles, graduate student Connor Robb-Wilcox and senior Rikuto Yamaguchi were on serve at 4-5 when the match was abandoned.
 
Singles:
Sancho Arbizu wasted no time to give Denver a 2-0 lead after losing just a single game in the top singles contest. It was his second 6-0 6-1 result in his last three matches for his best result of the 2024-25 season.
 
The next three singles courts to finish wrapped up within two minutes of each other, starting with Mishiro's victory at the No. 5 spot. He won the first four games of the match, and his two breaks would hold up for an eventual 6-2 win in the first set. To begin the second set, he broke ISU's serve and stretched his lead to 5-1 where he closed it out with yet another break.
 
Papajcik had the clinching point for DU, equaling Mishiro's three games lost. He broke in two of his first three return games and closed it out with a deuce-point hold for 6-1. He carried momentum into the second frame with three more games won in a row but did concede his serve to find himself at 3-2. The junior quickly responded by going on another three-game win streak to finish it off.
 
Robb-Wilcox was just points away and able to finish his match while Papajcik was shaking hands at the net. The grad student posted matching 6-2 sets. After his opponent opened play with hold, Robb-Wilcox went on a five-game run on his way to winning the first set. The first three games of the second set all went to the server before the Pioneer rattled off three straight games and once again held at love to close it out.
 
Yamaguchi and freshman Samuel Rovai did not finish their matches with Yamaguchi up 6-1 3-3 at No. 3 singles and Rovai even at 1-1 in the second set after dropping the first, 5-7.
 
Up Next:
The No. 1 seed University of Denver men's tennis team will face No. 2 seed North Dakota in the Summit League final on Saturday, April 19, at 10 a.m. MT.
 
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