No. 2 seed University of Mount Olive defeated Pfeiffer University 5-4 to claim the Trojans third straight Conference Carolinas Men's Tennis Championship on a rainy Sunday in Sumter, S.C. Mount Olive has earned an automatic bid to the NCAA DII Southeast Regional.
Mount Olive (15-5) battled the rain during doubles play that was delayed by rain as the Trojans went into singles play down 2-1, after winning #3 doubles 8-0.
Sherzod Akramov started off singles play for Mount Olive with a win at No. 6 singles 6-1, 6-3. The Trojans went on to take No 6, No. 3, and No. 5 singles to tie the game up at four.
The championship came down to No. 2 singles with Mount Olive's Jose Luis Cortijos and Pfeiffer's Oscar Van Kock battling. Mount Olive lost the opening set but struck back to take the second set 6-2. Luis Cortijos went down 5-1 in the third set and pushed back and saved two match points before taking the final point and the championship for Mount Olive winning 7-5
"I am so proud of these guys. All the hard work they put forth today was amazing. They picked each other up when one went down and I am so proud," said Head Coach Kevin Coghill.
Luis Cortijos was named the tournament MVP. Yannic Stark and Martin Moser joined Luis Cortijos on the All-Tournament team
Mount Olive will learn the seeding of the Southeast regional later this week.