BROWNSVILLE, Texas - No. 2 NM State defeated No. 1 Missouri-Kansas City to claim the WAC Tennis Tournament title Sunday at the Brownsville Tennis Center. With the win, the Aggies earn the WAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
UMKC came out early taking the doubles point with wins on court one by WAC Player of the Year Airam Castellano and Mike Psarros over Strahinja Trecakov and Liam Goldberg, 7-5, and on court three with Andrey Smirnov and Vinh Pham beating Mauri Benitez and Enrique Asmar, 7-6 (7-3).
In singles, Castellano picked up another point, beating Trecakov, 6-4, 6-1 to put the 'Roos up 2-0. The Aggies were not going to give up as they picked up the next two points to tie it up with Goldberg winning on court three, 6-3, 6-2 over Uldis Gaismins and Benitez winning on court five over Pham, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.
Amaury Navette defeated Asmar, 6-0, 7-6 (7-4) on court six to regain the lead for UMKC. NM State's Stijn de Haan defateed Psarros, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 on court four to tie it up again.
With the score tied 3-3, it all came down to court two. Christofer Goncalves clinched the WAC title and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the win over Smirnov, 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3. Just a sophomore, this is Goncalves' second time clinching the championship for the Aggies.