Box Score
Trinity to Kalamazoo sounds like a Bob Hope/Bing Crosby movie (if you're old enough to remember), but there was nothing funny about Trinity's 5-2 win over Gustavus Adolphus in the NCAA III Whitewater Regional final on the Wangerin Courts in Whitewater, Wisconsin. With the win Trinity, 20-9, advances to the NCAA III team championship finals in Kalamazoo, Michigan May 20-22.
Gustavus, ranked eighteenth in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division III poll, took two of three doubles matches for an early 2-1 lead. In matches featuring ranked players, the GAC duo of Amrik Donkena and Mya Smith-Dennis, second in the ITA Central Region, defeated Trinity's Erick DelaFuente and Jordan Mayer, fourth in the West Region, 8-6. At number two doubles, the Gustie duo of Tyler Johnson and Grant Leisner, seventh in the Central ranking, topped the Trinity pair of Aaron Skinner and Motasem Al-Houni, fourteenth in the West, 9-8 (5).
Mayer evened the match at 2-2 with a win at five singles, followed by teammates Greg Haugen at three and DelaFuente at four to make it 4-2 Trinity. Nicolas Moreno earned the deciding point with a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over Smith-Dennis, ranked ninth in Central Region singles. The marquee matchup of Trinity's Aaron Skinner, fourth in the West, and GAC's Amrik Donkena, eighth in the Central, was the only match that did not play to a conclusion.
Gustavus ends the season with a 22-10 dual meet record.
