ARLINGTON, Texas (April 26, 2024) – Following their first LSC Championships win in program history, the Chaparrals nearly pulled off an upset over No.19 Midwestern State (No.1-seed), but the Mustangs won a pair of three-set singles matches to edge No.40 Lubbock Christian (No.4-seed) 4-3 Friday at Arlington Tennis Center.
MSU rushed out to a 1-0 lead in the duals, claiming the first two doubles matches that were completed. No.2-doubles and No.3-doubles. The No.1-doubles match went unfinished.
Blas Ruiz Romero (No.6-singles) and
Pablo Segura (No.5-singles) were the first to complete their singles matches and each claimed wins for LCU to give the Chaparrals a 2-1 lead. With the dual tied 2-2 and three matches ongoing, LCU needed to win two of the three. No.45
Martins Abamu lost a tough three-set No.1-singles match (6-3 in final set) to No.38 Luis Diaz, but LCU responded in No.4-singles, as
Herman Aguirre used a 12-10 tiebreaker in the opening set to eventually claim a two-set win to tie the dual at 3-3.
The clincher came in No.2-singles, as LCU's
Tristan Vigneron had forced No.61 Germano Setti into a third set. Setti won the set 6-3 to move MSU into the finals.
Segura won his team-leading 26
th singles win this season (11th consecutive win) and is 26-5 in all singles matches played. He is 19-2 in duals and 8-0 in No.5-singles matches. Romero improved to 10-2 in duals and is 16-4 overall this season in singles.
The Chaps record moves to 18-6 on the season and the win placed them 1-1 all-time in LSC Championship play. LCU is 4-4 in matches with 4-3 outcomes. The Chaps fall to 0-3 all-time against Midwestern State (0-2 this season). LCU will now await a NCAA Division II South Central Regional berth.
