Agate
Tournament Central
 
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The Elon University men's tennis team's season came to a close today, April 18, as the Phoenix was defeated, 4-1, by host William & Mary in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association Men's Tennis Championships at the Millie West Tennis Facility.
 
The Tribe took a 3-0 lead with two singles wins after taking the doubles point and Elon cut into the deficit before dropping the deciding match. Two matches remained tight in the third set when play was ended.
 
"The doubles point was huge. I felt like that kind of set the tempo and that was a big point that we lost," Elon head coach Michael Leonard said. "It just wasn't our day but I thought the guys played hard and I'm proud of our seniors for the four years they had. They made a lot of great memories over the time they've been here."
 
The second-seeded Phoenix ends the season with a record of 10-13, marking the third straight year that the team has finished with at least 10 wins.
 
Third-seeded William & Mary (15-12) and Elon played a competitive doubles point that needed to be decided in the tiebreaker of the third match. The Tribe won on court No. 3, but Elon's top pairing of Stefan Fortmann and Brian Kowalski won, 8-3, leaving the point to be decided on court No. 2.
 
Jordan Kaufman and Chris Humphreys battled William & Mary's Addison Appleby and Lars de Boer at No. 2 doubles. The match was close throughout, tied at 4-4 and later at 6-6. The Tribe had five different match points, but Elon was able to fight back to tie it at 7-7 and force a tiebreaker. Appleby and de Boer would go on to win the tiebreaker and the match, 8-7 (7), to give the Tribe a 1-0 lead.
 
Wins by de Boer and Damon Niquet of the Tribe made it 3-0 in favor of William & Mary. Robert Lindgren trailed, 4-1, in two of his three sets but fought back to win the match, 7-5, 3-6, 6-0. That was the lone point Elon would earn on the day, as the Tribe won the deciding match in three sets on court No. 5 to advance to the CAA Tournament title match tomorrow, April 19, against fourth-seeded College of Charleston.
 
Fortmann and Kaufman each forced third sets in their respective matches after dropping the first, but went unfinished.
 
How it happened: William & Mary won the doubles point and jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Lindgren added a point for Elon with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-0 win at No. 3 singles. The Tribe's Alec Miller clinched the match with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win against Humphreys.