COOKEVILLE, Tenn.- University of Southern Indiana Men’s Tennis made program history on Saturday afternoon in their Horizon League conference victory over Tennessee Tech University, 4-3.
The Screaming Eagles won the clutch moments on Saturday as freshman Jy Hibbert clinched the match in a second set tiebreaker. The win secures the first NCAA Division I berth in program history to the Horizon League Championships as one of six conference schools competing on April 25-27 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The top three teams from the north and south divisions advance to the tournament as the Eagles have clinched a spot out the south division. Next Saturday’s matchup between USI and Tennessee State University will determine seeds for the tournament. Moreover, one seeds from each divisions receives byes, while the two seeds play the three seed from the north division and vice versa. Each team plays four conference regular season matches as the current standings are Belmont University (2-0), Tennessee State (2-0), USI (2-1), Eastern Illinois University (0-3), and Tennesse Tech (0-2). The tournament structure can be seen at the link above as the seeds will be revealed after the final conference regular season match on April 19.
Doubles
USI jumped out to the hot start, escaping with the doubles point. Sophomore Mathys Bove and freshman Adam Koon took care of business in the doubles three spot (6-2). The match was huge for the duo, winning their first doubles decision since beating University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Junior Axel Sabourin and Hibbert delivered another clutch performance and staying undefeated in doubles conference play (7-6 (7-3)).
Singles
The Eagles fell into an early hole as the singles five and six slots dropped matches. However, USI persevered as Sabourin overwhelmed his singles two opponent (6-2, 7-6) for his sixth win of the season.
Next, sophomore Eytan Michaeli dropped his first set but rallied to win in three sets (4-6, 6-4, 6-1), showing another example of grit from Saturday’s performance. Finally, Hibbert clinched the match and sent the Eagles to the Horizon League Championships after a second set tie breaker (6-2, 7-6 (11-9)) win in his first semester as an Eagle.
What’s Next
The Eagles have three regular season matches left. USI travels to Kentucky Wesleyan University on Thursday. Next, USI hosts senior day on Saturday against Tennessee State University. The USI seniors are Trent Ross and Quinten Gillespie. Finally, they finish with a trip to Indiana University.
