Contact: Brock Reisler, Assistant Executive Director, breisler@midwestconference.org
 
MADISON, Wisconsin – Lake Forest College won its first-ever Midwest Conference Men’s Tennis Tournament title with a 4-3 victory over Grinnell College in the final on Friday afternoon at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium. With the win, the Foresters earned the league’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament and improved to 16-6 overall.
 
With the score even at three apiece following four hours of intense tennis, Lake Forest’s Joao Espindola gave the Foresters the MWC Tournament title with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) win on court five.
 
Lake Forest took an extremely competitive doubles point in the final that took over an hour to complete. The Foresters picked up a 6-3 victory on court one thanks to Felipe Moraes and Rodrigo Cunha before Grinnell responded with a 7-5 win on court two (Maxi Gutbezahl and Alex Doane). That set the stage for Lake Forest’s three doubles pair of Espindola and Tim Pasea to win a 7-6 (6) thriller and give the Foresters the early lead.
 
Grinnell won four of six first sets in singles and evened the match at one thanks to Gutzebahl’s 6-3, 6-3 win at two singles. Soon after, the match was knotted at two apiece thanks to wins by Grinnell’s Henry Park (6-4, 6-0) on court four and Lake Forest’s George Ciuca (6-3, 7-5) on court three.
 
The Pioneers then inched closer to victory, going ahead 3-2 with a 6-2, 6-3 win by Gervase Ngo on court six. However, Moraes kept Lake Forest alive with a 6-3 7-6(4) on court one, leaving court five to decide the match.
 
Lake Forest and Grinnell advanced to the championship match after earning convincing semifinal wins over Cornell College and Illinois College. Lake Forest took down Cornell 4-0 and Grinnell defeated Illinois College 5-0.
 
Grinnell finishes the season with an 18-6 overall record, while Illinois College wraps up at 13-9 and Cornell College ends 14-12.
 
Lake Forest now awaits its first NCAA Tournament destination in school history, to be announced Monday, May 4 via the NCAA Selection Show. The selections will be streamed live at 11:30 a.m. on NCAA.com.