Box Score ORLANDO, Fla. – The University of Dayton men's tennis team clinched a spot in the Atlantic 10 Finals for the first time since 2005 with a 4-3 win over No. 2 Davidson on Saturday morning. Dayton's overall record is now up to 18-6, which is the second-most all-time in Dayton history for wins in a single season.
All three doubles matches went down to the wire, as each court was tied up at 5-5 at one point. Court two was the only match that wouldn't go on to a tiebreak, as
Jordan Benjamin and
Theo Jener won 7-5 to give Dayton the early advantage, but Davidson evened it back up with a 7-6 win at No. 1 doubles, leaving the doubles point hanging in the balance of the results at No. 3 doubles with
Lorenzo Rollhauser and
Steven Karl. Karl and Rollhauser fell behind by a score of 6-4 in the tiebreaker, but the duo turned away two straight match points for Davidson and battled all the way back to take a 7-6 lead in the tiebreak. After trading a few points, Dayton finally broke through with Rollhauser serving to win two straight points to win the match, 7-6 (8), and clinch the doubles point. Watch the doubles-clinching point below:
Â
The match was knotted up at 1-1 after a 6-1, 6-2 win for Davidson at No. 6 singles, but Dayton picked up a pair of straight-set wins from
Zach Berry and
Steven Karl on courts three and five, respectively, to take back the lead by a 3-1 margin.
Carsten Fisher was able to force a third set after dropping the opening set on a tiebreaker, but lost the third set by a 6-4 margin to cut Dayton's lead to just one game. The Wildcats tied it back up again at 3-3 with a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 4 singles, which left the match in the hands of
Jordan Benjamin at No. 1 singles. Benjamin dropped the opening set to Artem Khrapko, 6-2, and found himself in a tiebreaker in what would have been a deciding second set. Khrapko took the first two points of the tiebreak, but Benjamin rattled off seven straight points to force a winner-takes-all third set. With his teammates cheering him on, Benjamin came out firing and overpowered Khrapko from the get-go of the third set and posted a decisive 6-1 win to clinch Dayton's first berth in the A-10 Finals match since 2005. Check out Benjamin's match-clinching point, as well as an interview with the junior from Fairport, N.Y., who improved his dual match record to 16-0 in 2018:
Â
Â
Â
Dayton will take on VCU for the championship tomorrow at 10 a.m., marking the second time the Flyers have played the Rams this season. Dayton took VCU the distance in the regular season matchup, but fell by a score of 4-3 after leading 3-0 on Jan. 26. The match will be streamed live on Youtube with full wraparound coverage, which you will be able to watch
HERE.
Â
