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Aggies end super season at Nationals
HOUSTON, Texas (May 14) – The fabulous season of the nationally-ranked #7 Cameron men’s tennis team (21-4) unfortunately came to a close this afternoon in the “Sweet 16” round of the NCAA National Championship tournament. The Aggies fell 5-4 to the nationally-ranked #19 Patriots of Francis Marion University (South Carolina) for just their fourth loss of the season. CU now returns home to Lawton with their season over, while FMU moves on to the “Elite Eight” round.
“This was a great season with a great group of guys, and I hate to see it come to an end,” Head Coach James Helvey said. “We were able to accomplish a lot and I am incredibly proud of the team. Even though we didn’t win the national championship, we still had a very impressive season.”
Cameron went down 2-1 after the opening doubles matches, something they hadn’t done for nearly the entire season. The Aggies lost at the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles spots, and won the No. 3 match.
“Francis Mason is a good team. They are ranked in the top twenty nationally so we knew they were going to be tough,” Coach Helvey said. “We had a lot of close matches and they just took one more than we did.”
In the No. 1 doubles match, the nationally-ranked #1 doubles team of Jordi Mullor and Daniel Pazos lost to the FMU duo of Dilshod Sharifi and Oshada Wijemanne. The match was scored 8-3 and was only CU’s third loss at the No. 1 doubles position all season.
Cameron’s Cristian Easton and Nicolas Mascheroni nearly came away with the No. 2 doubles match, leading 7-5 and needing just one more game to win the match. Francis Marion’s tandem of Franklyn Emmanuel and Dananjaya Mayadunne fought back and won four straight games to win the match 9-7.
CU’s only win in the doubles round came at the No. 3 position where Saman Samii and Ignacio Murgier defeated Matthew Keth and Karl Rogers. The Aggies were in control throughout and won the match 8-4.
When the singles round began, the Patriots had the momentum and started by leading in the majority of the matches. The Aggies fought back however, and won three of the first five singles matches to tie it at 4-4 overall.
Both teams gathered around the final match of the afternoon, the No. 5 singles match, which had gone into a third and final set. CU’s Cristian Easton and FMU’s Karl Rogers were battling it out to see who would win the set, the No. 5 singles match, and the overall match.
Unfortunately for Aggie fans, Rogers came out on top 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 and will be moving on to the “Elite 8” round of the national tournament. Cameron will now enter the offseason training portion of their schedule.
Cameron’s singles wins on the day came in the No. 2, No. 4, and No. 6 singles matches. In the No. 2 match, nationally-ranked #38 Daniel Pazos defeated Oshada Wijemanne in straight sets, 7-6, 6-1.
In the No. 4 singles match, Nicolas Mascheroni had no problem beating Bastian Czwalinna in two sets. Mascheroni won the match 6-0, 6-3. Cameron’s Agustin Criado followed suit in the No. 6 singles match as he defeated Dananjaya Mayadunne 6-2, 7-5.
Today’s loss ends the incredible season for the Cameron Aggie men’s tennis team and head coach James Helvey. This year the Aggies achieved the highest national (#7) and regional (#1) rankings in school history, beat Abilene Christian (twice) for the first time in school history, and won the first Lone Star Conference Championship in school history.
“I can’t say it enough: it was a great season. I am going to miss (senior) Jordi Mullor a lot. He was an outstanding player and just an incredible individual,” Coach Helvey said. “I am very proud of this team.”
The team also saw Coach Helvey record his 500th career victory, as well as be named the LSC Coach of the Year, the CU Coach of the Year, the ITA Regional Coach of the Year, and the ITA National Coach of the Year.
Stay tuned to the Cameron Athletics website (goaggies.cameron.edu) for offseason and recruiting news regarding the CU men’s tennis team.
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