SSAC News
Fri, May 18, 2007 - [Men's Tennis]
News Photo

Mobile, Ala. —At the NAIA National Tennis Championships in Mobile on Friday morning, Auburn University Montgomery’s No. 1 ranked men’s tennis team successfully completed taking back-to-back National Championships by sweeping all three doubles matches and winning two singles matches for a 5-0 win over No. 2  Azusa Pacific (Calif.).  This win marks the seventh Men’s Team Tennis title in school history, including 1987, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2004 and 2006.

Daniel Plasa and Anton Brykalin defeated Patrick Kur and M. Webber 8-3 in the opening match while in the second match, Nikola Miskovic and Victor Sanakai Papi fought for a 9-7 decision over David Goodman and Matthijs Bolsius.  In the final doubles match, Tim Mudrick and Alex Petropolous won 8-3 over Ronald Chow and Robbie Dabbs.
 
In singles action, AUM’s Sanakai Papi out-dueled Bolsius 6-4, 7-6(5) in a match where the Senators found their man trailing in the second set 2-5 before he stormed back to take the decisive game in a tiebreaker.  Mudrick defeated Dabbs 6-2, 6-0 to close out the victory and clinch the title for AUM.

The 2007 title now gives the AUM the second most Men’s Team titles in NAIA tennis history, a history that dates back to 1952.  Only The Redlands (Calif.) holds more championships with 11 won between 1954 and 1980.  The Senators have now made it to the finals 12 of the last 21 years.
 
Following the matches, Head Coach Anuk Christianz was named NAIA Men’s Tennis Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year and for his third time as the AUM men’s coach.  He also won the award twice as the AUM women’s coach in 2003 and 2004.  An AUM men’s coach has now won the award seven times.
 

Doubles
#1 D. Plasa/A. Brykalin (AUM) def. P. Kur/M. Weber (APU); 8-3
#2 N. Miskovic/V. Sanakai Papi (AUM) def. D. Goodman/M. Bolsius (APU); 9-7
#3 T. Mudrick/ A. Petropolous (AUM) def. R. Chow/R. Dabbs (APU); 8-3

Singles
#1 Anton Brykalin (AUM) vs. David Goodman (APU); DNF
#2 Daniel Plasa (AUM) vs. Patrick Kur (APU); DNF
#3 Victor Sanaki Papi (AUM) def. Matthijs Bolsius (APU); 6-4;7-6(5)
#4 Alex Petropolous (AUM) vs. Ronald Chow (APU); DNF
#5 Nikola Miskovic (AUM) vs. Art Fatkhiev (APU); DNF
#6 Timothy Mudrick (AUM) def. Robbie Dabbs (APU); 6-2, 6-0