Philadelphia, Pa. – The 10th-ranked Concordia men's tennis team battled the University of the Sciences in the first semi final at the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championships on Saturday afternoon. The No. 1 seeded Clippers would win with ease, 5-0, over the No. 4 seeded Devils to advance to the CACC Championship match for the fourth straight season.
The CACC hosted its annual awards banquet the night before the opening matches to recognize its individual and team awards recipients. Senior Andrey Boldarev (Tashkent, Uzbekistan), senior Andreas Lindell (Helsingborg, Sweden), sophomore Benas Majauskas (Vilnius, Lithuania), sophomore Tomasz Olfans (Opole, Poland), junior Daniele Piludu (Cagliari, Italy), and senior David Tisserand (Lyon, France) were all named to the CACC Men's Tennis All-First Team to sweep all six spots.
Sophomore Ricardo Frey (Curitiba, Brazil) and sophomore Juuso Ojanen (Varkaus, Finland) were named to the CACC All-Second Team as every player on the roster for Concordia was named to one of the teams.
In the individual awards, Piludu was named the CACC Player of the Year for the second straight season while head coach Neil Tarangioli was named the CACC Coach of the Year.
On the tennis courts the Clippers would show why they are such a dominate force taking an early 3-0 lead following doubles play. Olfans and Majauskas would begin the afternoon with an 8-0 victory in their #2 doubles match against the duo of David Kazakevich and Julian Katzev.
Tisserand and Lindell's 8-2 win in the #3 match over William Metz and Paul Bedway would follow shortly thereafter and then Boldarev and Piludu concluded doubles play with an 8-4 victory in the #1 match against Jake Sosonkin/Steven Galerkin.
Ojanen and Frey's singles matches would be the only ones to finish as both secured 6-0, 6-0 wins to give Concordia a 5-0 overall win over USciences to eliminate the Devils from the conference championships. The remaining matches were in progress and all were unfinished.
The Clippers (16-2, 6-0 CACC) will be back on the courts tomorrow afternoon as the team looks to capture their fourth straight CACC Championship and earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Concordia will take on the hosts, the No. 2 seeded Chestnut Hill College Griffins, at 12pm back at the CHC Tennis Courts. Fans unable to attend can follow the action via live stats on ConcordiaClippers.com.