NCAA Bound - Men's Tennis Wins CSAC Championship
Marywood University claimed the 2010 Men's Tennis CSAC Champoinship and earned the program's first trip to the NCAA Tournament. Photo courtesy of Neumann Sports Information.

NCAA Bound - Men's Tennis Wins CSAC Championship

Men's Tennis - 5/3/2010 1:43:45 PM

Box Score

Springfield, PA - Marywood University rallied from a 2-1 deficit after doubles play to win four of six singles matches and in the process captured the 2010 Colonial States Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Championship.  It is the third time the men's tennis team has captured the Conference Title but the first time the Pacers have earned the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.  Marywood improves to 15-3 and will await their seeding in the NCAA tournament while Neumann closes their 2010 campaign with a 9-10 overall record and CSAC runner-up finish.

Neumann jumped out to a 2-1 lead after doubles as their top two teams claimed wins over Marywood.  At one-doubles, Chris Brown and Dan Harnos downed Marywood's Evan Bolus and Greg Chilson, 8-6.  Though it does not count as a conference loss, it was the first time all year the team of Bolus or Chilson dropped a match to a CSAC school.  Neumann would then get their second point of the day as Greg Bridgeman and Brian Crispin downed the Pacer duo of Daniel Pfafman and Barrett Wentworth by a score of 8-5.  Marywood would then respond with a win at three-doubles as Todd Doran (South Windsor, CT) and Wyatt Nolan (Montoursville, PA) beat Neumann's Greg Christiansen and Abe Joseph 8-4. 

From there, it was all Marywood in singles play.  Bolus (Clarks Summit, PA) tied the match at 2-2 by beating Bridgeman 6-3, 6-2 in the second singles flight.  The one-singles, three-singles and five-singles then ended at almost the exact same time.  Chilson (Mountainside, NJ) earned 7-5, 6-3 win over Brown in the top singles flight while Ethan Jones (Lebanon, PA) got the win for Marywood at four-singels, 7-5, 6-2.  After winning the opening set 6-3, Doran rallied from a 5-2 deficit against Crispin at three-singles to claim a 7-5 second set win.  

Two other matches were in progress when the Pacers reached the decisive fifth point and therefore get recorded as unfinished.  Marywood's Daniel Pfafman (Stratford, NJ) trailed Neumann's Dan Harnos 4-6, 2-3 at four singles while Marywood's Bao Nguyen (Scranton, PA) was up on Joseph 5-3 at six-singles.

The 2010 men's tennis champions join the 2006 and 1998 men's tennis teams as conference champions.  It is the program's first trip to the NCAA tournament, however, as the conference did not have automatic bids the previous years.  The men's tennis team joins the 1987 women's basketball team and the 2008 women's soccer team as the only Marywood teams to reach the NCAA tournament.

Marywood's next opponent is yet to be determined but the NCAA Championships open play the weekend of May 15-16. 

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