Mixed Tennis clinches second seed in next week's NAC tournament with 5-4 win over Delhi

Bennington, VT- The MCLA Mixed Tennis team earned a hard fought 5-4 win over SUNY-Delhi this afternoon in NAC action and in the process clinched the second seed in next weekend's postseason tournament.  The match was the regular season finale for the Trailblazers as they ended their regular season at 6-4 overall and 3-1 in the league.  The Broncos are now 4-7 overall and sit at 2-2 in the conference.

MCLA found themselves down 2-1 after doubles as Delhi earned points in the first and third doubles slots.  All the doubles matches were nailbiters and set the stage for some great singles play.

In singles, Delhi's Christopher Balogh defeated Matt Bluteau 6-2, 6-0 to increase the lead to 3-1.  Sam Gawron got MCLA closer as she earned a straight set win over Bailey Lane to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Cal Najimy defeated Marcos Andrino in three sets 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to knot things up at 3-3 with three matches still in progress.  Delhi's Michael Zerniak earned a point in the fourth slot to bring the Broncos to the brink of winning the match, however the Trailblazers had other ideas.

Briana Higgins defeated Bababukunmi Babalola 6-2, 6-0 to even things up at 4-4 in the sixth slot.

The deciding match was played in the fifth slot between MCLA's Mohamed Mahrous and Delhi's Jake Robinson.  Robinson took the first set 6-3 over Mahrous, but he would respond by closing out Robinson 6-3, 6-2 over the final two sets to clinch the decisive point for MCLA.

It's the second straight match in which Mahrous proved to be the difference.

The Trailblazes and Broncos will meet again next weekend in the NAC semifinals which are set to be hosted by NVU-Johnson on Saturday, April 27th.  The winner of that match will advance to the NAC title match against a foe still to be determined.