BROWNWOOD, Texas – McMurry Men's Tennis earned perhaps its biggest win of the season thus far Saturday, battling to a 5-4 win over Howard Payne University to earn the final spot in the American Southwest Conference Championship Tournament.
McMurry (5-14, 2-3 ASC) won all three doubles matches and needed just two wins in singles to clinch the win and the tournament berth. Both of those wins came at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, as Chase Daniell won 6-3, 6-2 against Hunter Green to clinch the match.
The other singles win came from Reid Smith in a dominant 6-0, 6-1 victory at No. 2 singles.
Daniell and Smith won 8-5 in No. 1 doubles, while Ty Edwards and Jason Cabe mirrored that result for a win at No. 2 doubles. The final point came in a 7-3 tiebreaker, as Connor Hogan and Trent Lewis held off Landon Ferree and Christian Fernandez for an 8-7 win.
Despite losing the first five points and the match, Howard Payne (3-10, 1-4 ASC) came back to win the bottom four seeds. Three of the four went to three sets, including Cabe who fell 11-9 in the tiebreaker. Edwards battled back in the first set to win 7-6 (7-4) before falling 5-7 and 4-10 in the final two sets.
McMurry now moves on to the postseason, where it will face ASC East Division winner UT Dallas in the quarterfinal round Thursday, May 5 at 11:30 a.m. The tournament will be hosted in Austin, Texas and will span from May 5-7.
