Blue Raiders Fall to #22 Tulane in NCAA Championships

Saturday, May 8

Oxford, Miss.

12 p.m.

Middle Tennessee

Tulane

Photo by: Ole Miss Athletics

5/8/2021 3:29:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

OXFORD, Miss - The #42 Middle Tennessee men's tennis team fell to #22 Tulane, 4-0, Saturday afternoon, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The match was not nearly as lopsided as the score was as the Blue Raiders and Green Wave battled for nearly three hours at Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center.

With the loss today, MTSU finishes the season at 17-8 while Tulane improves to 15-7 and advances to the next round to face the winner of Ole Miss and Belmont.

The day started strong for the Raiders as Tom Moonen and Chris Edge won their doubles match on court two, 6-1. However, Tulane tied it up by winning on court three before taking the doubles point with a win on court one, 6-3, in a match that saw eight deuce points.

In singles, Pavel Motl and Max Rauch took the first set on five and six, but Tulane jumped ahead on the other four courts. The Green Wave extended their match lead to 3-0 with straight-set wins on one and three, but Edge and Stijn Slump each forced a third set, each with 6-4 second-set victories.

While the matches on five and six went to a third set as well, Edge fell behind 3-0 on court four in the third set, but came back to tie it at three with a break-hold-break sequence. However, he was broken again in the next game and this time, the Brit was unable to mount another comeback as Tulane took the third set, 6-3, and the match 4-0.

The season comes to an end for nine Blue Raiders, but not yet for Francisco Rocha. The junior earned a bid to play in the NCAA Singles Championship, beginning on May 23rd at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.