Loper Athletics
KEARNEY – The 29th-ranked Ouachita (Ark.) Baptist Tigers swept the Nebraska-Kearney men’s tennis team, 4-0, Wednesday morning in a MIAA/GAC Tournament quarterfinal match Wednesday morning in Edmond, Okla.
The Lopers end at 13-11 with OBU (14-6) moving on to the semifinals tomorrow to face ninth-ranked Washburn. Both teams are ranked (OBU second, UNK sixth) in the latest NCAA Central Region rankings; the Central’s top four teams make the NCAA field when its announced Monday night (May 6).
This was UNK’s first season back since the program was eliminated in 2018 and they were aiming for their first postseason win since April 2015.
Earlier this year in Arkansas, the Lopers lost by just a 4-3 score to the Tigers in Arkansas. UNK won the doubles point in that dual but lost it today as OBU won 6-3 at one and 6-1 at two. The top spot was a battle between fifth-ranked Alex Blanchar/Phil Exner and UNK’s 11th-ranked pair of Tom van den Dungen (Netherlands) and graduate Aaron Osmond (U.K.). UNK won the matchup 6-4 in Arkadelphia but OBU got out to a 3-0 this time around. Finally, freshman Andy Brisdon (U.K.) and Jakub Strzelecki (Poland) were up 5-4 at thee before that match was stopped.
UNK tried to mount a comeback but lost in straight sets at one, two and five singles. This Loper singles lineup was much different than the regular season dual (wins at four and five) between the two with Brisdon up at six (7-6; 2-1) when play ended. He led the team in singles wins in the dual season (13) with freshman Jip Mens second (12). Finally, Osmond and van den Dungen went 16-7 in doubles to lead the way.
