[Championship Page]
Madison, Wis.. – Grinnell continued its stranglehold on the Midwest Conference Men’s Tennis Championship by defeating Carroll and Lake Forest by identical 5-0 scores today at the team championship in Madison, Wis. The team championship is Grinnell’s eighth in a row and ninth in the last 10 years.
The Pioneers started their championship run by defeating Carroll 5-0 in the semifinal match. Grinnell swept the doubles matches led by Juan Carlos Perez and Dmitriy Glumov who defeated the Carroll pair of Seth Pamperin and Mathew Zellner by the score of 8-1. The tandem of Colin Johnson and Michael Cole defeated John Silseth and Matt Joost by an 8-5 score while Ben Flebbe and Dylan Gumm downed their counterparts by an identical 8-5 score.
Alec Moore and Daniel Nellis each picked up singles wins, both 6-1, 6-0 in the semifinal matches to earn a spot in the finals.
Monmouth earned a spot in the championship match after a 5-0 win over St. Norbert. Monmouth swept the doubles matches with the teams of Ben Morrow and Tyler Lampe downing Matt Lobeck and Josh Sweere by an 8-3 score while teammates Chris Franco and Chris Utterback scored a similar victory over the Green Knights tandem of Tim Hartwick and Danny Meicher. David Johnson and David Stweart complted the clean doubles sweep in the No. 1 flight with a 8-6 victory over Derek Harrington and Nick Acosta.
Ben Morrow brought home a 6-3, 6-1 victory in the No. 6 singles flight and Sam Graf earned a perfect 6-0, 6-0 victory in the No. 5 flight to end the match.
Grinnell finished a perfect day with a 5-0 championship decision over Monmouth. The Pioneers once again swept all three doubles flights with Perez and Glumov earning an 8-2 victory over Johnson and Stewart. The No. 2 and 3 flights were both 8-5 decisions with Johnson and Cole downing the Fighting Scots No. 2 flight and Martin Dluhos and Ishan Bhadkamkar defeating the Monmouth No. 3 doubles flight.
Grinnell wrapped up the championship by earning singles victories by Juan Carlos Perez (No. 1, 6-1, 6-2) and Ishan Bhadkamkar (No. 5, 6-0, 6-3).
The championship weekend continues through the weekend as the singles champions will be crowned on Saturday and the doubles champioins will be decided on Sunday at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wis.
Head coach Andy Hamilton talks about the win:
Grinnell's Juan Carlos Perez talks about the team's eighth straight team title: