When it comes to the USA South Conference men’s tennis tournament, there is North Carolina Wesleyan University. Then there’s everyone else.
The Bishop men, the conference’s regular-season champion and No. 1 seed, claimed their 15th straight USAS tournament championship on Saturday with a 5-0 victory over No. 2 seed Pfeiffer (13-5 overall) in the title match at Slick Family Foundation Tennis Courts.
Diego Segovia was named the USAS Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player and was was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates John Falke, Logan Stoltz and Bohdan Zhylchuk and Pfeiffer’s Andres Valdez-Arze and Jayden Wellman.
“The men’s team knows each time it steps on the court the opponent will bring its very best,” said Bishops head coach Albie Brice. “They understand the history of this tennis program and count it a privilege to be on the opposite side of each opponent’s ‘A’ game. These guys are continually measured against the best teams in the nation. Their response: They raise the bar, period.”
The match began with doubles, where Wesleyan (16-8 overall) emerged with a sweep of the three matches.
The Bishops’ No. 3 duo of Luca Knese and Sean Keane were the first off the court as they handled Wellman and Mateo Sonaglia 8-1.
Segovia and Albert Sitwell teamed up for an 8-2 win over Mathius Dessureau and Benedikt Pfeiffer.
Wesleyan’s No. 2 pairing of Falke and Stoltz got past Valdez-Arze and Dylan Masters to complete the sweep.
The Bishops needed just two wins in singles to claim the championship.
Segovia dispatched Dessureau 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2, and Zhylchuk clinched the title with a 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Valdez-Arze at No. 5 singles.
Wesleyan was leading at No. 1 (Falke vs. Pfeiffer), No. 4 (Stoltz vs. Masters) and No. 5 (Bernardo Messineo vs. Sonaglia) when Zhylchuk clinched the championship. Those results, as well as the No. 2 singles event between Sitwell and Wellman, were recorded as unfinished.
Wesleyan advanced to the championship match with a 5-0 win over Brevard in the semifinals on Friday.
The Bishops swept doubles, with the No. 2 team of Falke and Stoltz winning 8-1 over Peter Besko and Devin Horton and the No. 3 duo of Knese and Keane taking an 8-0 victory over Brian Seon and James Srsich.
At No. 1 doubles, Segovia and Sitwell eased past Hayden LeBlanc and Bryce Bernitt 8-3.
In singles, Stoltz won 6-0, 6-0 over David Hoyle at No. 4 and Zhylchuk took a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Srsich at No. 5 to send Wesleyan to the finals.
The other singles matches were recorded as unfinished: Falke vs. LeBlanc at No. 1, Segovia vs. Bernitt at No. 2, Sitwell vs. Horton at No. 3 and Knese vs. Seon at No. 4).
Wesleyan is currently ranked 18th nationally and third regionally.
As to how the players are able to stay motivated year after year, Brice said: “We remind the team what this program has accomplished is remarkable yet unfinished. The program’s standard is to be elite and to be committed to doing elite things. Championships are celebrated at awards presentations and in newspaper articles, but they are won in the day-to-day grind of accepting accountability for your improvement, honing your craft and embracing the pressure of the championship arena.
“(They) have made winning look easy, but (they) know it is not. Winning is hard, winning is earned, or winning is not worth it.”
REGULAR SEASON
Wesleyan was well-represented on the all-conference team for the regular season. Falke was named the conference’s player of the year and earned first-team recognition while Segovia and Sitwell were also first-team selections. Stoltz was a second-team selection.
In addition, Falke was an all-sportsmanship selection.
Falke, a senior from Halland, Sweden, becomes the second Bishop (Sebastian Sikh in 2017-18) to earn back-to-back USAS men’s player of the year honors.
The Bishops completed their 15th consecutive unblemished regular season (6-0) and have won 118 conference matches in a row.
Albie Brice was named the conference’s coach of the year. This is the third straight year (and fifth overall) that Brice has been awarded this honor.
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