Aggies end season in regional finale
LAWTON, Oklahoma (May 8) – In the sweltering heat out at the Cameron University Tennis Complex, the #15 Aggie men’s tennis team fell to the #19 St. Edward’s Hilltoppers for the second time this season. Today’s 5-4 loss ends CU’s season in the NCAA Division II regional championship finals. The Aggies were hosting the regional event for the second consecutive season. SEU defeated CU 6-3 earlier this season in Lawton.
“Today’s loss is extremely tough,” Head Coach James Helvey said. “St. Ed’s is a great team who has really had a tremendous season. We got beat today but we still played well. They (St. Edward’s) beat us twice this year so give them a lot of credit.”
With the loss the Aggies see their impressive 2008-2009 season come to a close in the second round of the NCAA national tournament. The ‘Toppers on the other hand advance to the “Sweet 16” round of the national tournament (May 13-16) in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
“Overall I think we had a great season,” Coach Helvey said. “It’s obviously disappointing to see it end like this, but we had a tremendous year. We were ranked in the top ten at one point, had one of the country’s best players (Pazos), and defeated nearly everyone in our entire region to be the region’s top seed all year long. It was a great year.”
The morning’s doubles matches got St. Edward’s started out on the right foot as they won two of the three matches. CU won the #2 doubles spot with Cristian Easton and Thomas Peixoto winning their hard-fought match 9-7.
SEU won both the #1 and #3 doubles spots to go up 2-1 heading into singles. Cameron’s top pair of Daniel Pazos and Diego Trojano lost their extremely close match 8-6, and Saman Samii and Daniel Bonamigo dropped the final doubles match 8-2.
Pazos rebounded from his rare doubles loss to defeat SEU’s Brett Powers in straight sets at the #1 singles position, 6-2 and 6-2.
Peixoto followed suit with another straight set victory for the Black and Gold in the #6 singles match. He defeated Nick Arnold 6-4, 6-3.
Hilltopper Mick Walter brought the match score back to 3-3 with a straight set victory over Diego Trojano in the #4 singles match. SEU won at the spot, 6-2 and 6-4.
The remaining three matches were all extremely close and each lasted nearly three hours.
In the #5 singles spot SEU’s Boris Barrios defeated CU’s Carlos Viscarra, but needed a tie-breaker to do so. Barrios won in straight sets, 6-4 and 7-6 (6-3).
The final two matches, the #2 and #3 singles matches, both went the distance and required a third and final set.
At the #3 spot CU’s Saman Samii won an incredible match over SEU’s Bernie Lancaster with sets scored 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. Samii’s victory put the match at a 4-4 tie with one match left on the courts to decide which team heads to Nationals.
Cristian Easton of Cameron and Justin Raiti of St. Edward’s battled it out in the ninth and final match, which was tied heading into the decisive third set. After nearly 15 deuce points in the final game, Raiti went on to win it 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to win the overall match and regional championship title for St. Edward’s University.
Cameron now enters the offseason training portion of their season, saying goodbye to four very influential seniors. The 2009-2010 year will begin with the individual portion of the season next fall.
In other Aggie tennis news, this week Coach Helvey was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) South Central Region Coach of the Year to go along with his 2009 Lone Star Conference C.O.Y. award. Coach Helvey has won both the LSC and ITA Coach of the Year awards each of the last two seasons.
The current Lone Star Conference Player of the Year and nationally-ranked #14 singles player, Daniel Pazos, also received ITA hardware this week as the ITA’s South Central Region Senior Player of the Year.
Cameron’s other player to be honored was Diego Trojano who was named the ITA’s South Central Region Player to Watch.
