Both the singles and doubles titles came down to tie-breakers at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s annual fall regional championships and Incarnate Word found no success in either bracket.
Each year the ITA conducts eight regional tournaments at the Division II, Division III, NAIA and junior college levels. The top singles players and the winning doubles teams from each of those four areas advance to the Super Bowl of college tennis. And UIW came oh so close to winning both brackets.
In singles at the South Central Regional, Francisco Segura of Incarnate Word won four matches on the way to the finals. There, playing number five-seed Ryan Ward of Washburn, Segura split sets 3-6, 6-3 before dropping the tie-breaker 10-5. Along the way he won over number six-seed Felipe Gennari of Northwest Missouri and in the semi-finals he defeated fellow UIW Cardinal Alex Wieland.
Over in doubles, Wieland and Max Moreau went in as the fourth seed. On the way to the final match they defeated the sixth and seventh seeds. They too split sets, 4-6, 6-4 in the final match before dropping the tie-breaker by a 10-8 count to an unseeded team from Missouri Southern.
Two years ago Incarnate Word’s Henry Estrella won the singles at the regional level and advanced to the Super Bowl.