TCU Tennis Falls In MWC Semis
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SAN DIEGO – TCU’s men’s tennis team saw its season come to a conclusion Saturday with a 4-0 defeat by No. 38 and top-seeded Boise State in the semifinals of the Mountain West Men’s Tennis Championship at San Diego State’s Aztec Tennis Center.
The fourth-seeded Horned Frogs finished the year at 9-15, while the Broncos improved to 25-6. Boise State advanced to Sunday’s Mountain West championship match.
After BSU claimed a win at No. 1 doubles, TCU’s freshmen tandem of Nick Chappell and Will Stein bounced back for an 8-6 win at No. 2 doubles over Damian Hume and Scott Sears. Their win forced the No. 3 doubles match to be the deciding one for the second-straight day.
TCU’s No. 3 duo of JT Sundling and Blake Wiggins earned a break early in the match to take a 4-2 lead, but were broken back at 4-all. With the match on serve and a 6-5 BSU advantage, the Bronco tandem of Andy Bettles and Filipp Pogostkin won a break point and served out an 8-5 win to give Boise State a 1-0 lead.
The top of TCU’s singles lineup hung tough with the Broncos as singles began, including Chappell winning the first set, 6-4, over No. 91-ranked James Meredith. Chappell’s match was eventually called to a halt at 4-4 in the second set. The Indianapolis native went 21-10 overall and 14-6 this spring.
Stein was bettered at No. 5 singles, 6-1, 6-4, by Pogostkin to make it 2-0 in favor of the top-seeded Broncos.
Boise State ran its advantage to 3-0 when Nathan Sereke was able to knock off Daniel Sanchez, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 4 singles. Sanchez’s TCU career came to a close with him posting a 14-15 overall record and 9-11 dual season mark.
At No. 6 singles, Blake Wiggins fell 6-2 in the first set to Scott Sears, but was able to battle back and force a second-set tiebreaker. Ultimately, Sears proved too much and grabbed a 6-2, 7-6 (4) win to clinch the match for Boise State.
