FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- For the seventh time in the last nine seasons, the Christopher Newport men's tennis team will compete in the conference championship match after the nationally-ranked Captains advanced to the 2024 Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Championship behind the weight of a 5-2 win in the semifinals on Saturday morning. The second-seeded Captains (13-6) took down third-seeded UC Santa Cruz to advance to Sunday's final against top-seeded Mary Washington. 

The win was retribution for a regular season loss to the Banana Slugs, 5-4, suffered on a neutral court in Southern California. On Saturday, CNU flipped the scoreboard with a 5-2 win to take a 3-1 edge in the all-time series. 

The Captains rebounded from falling behind, 2-1, after doubles, and won all four singles matches that were finished by the time CNU clinched the team win. 

In doubles, the CNU win came at No. 1 where Nesh Kumaresan and C2C Player of the Year Vincent Truong paired up for an 8-5 win against Benjamin Wang and Ryan Lam. The other two matchups in pairs play were closely contested, but Santa Cruz earned an 8-4 win at No. 2 and an 8-6 win at No. 3. 

Rallying for the win in singles play, CNU got things started with a dominant win by junior Ashton Legum at No. 4 versus Wang (6-0, 6-2). With the score drawn even, Truong picked up his second win of the day to give CNU their first lead of the day, 3-2, after he took down Andrew Tjoa at the No. 1 line. 

Continuing the momentum in favor of the Captains, senior Edvard Porsmyr Hansen earned the win at No. 2 against Praneet Varade. The Oslo, Norway native captured a tiebreaker win in the first set before running away with the second set in the win, 7-6 (4), 6-2. 

Finally, clinching the match, Ryan Monroe earned a hard-fought win at No. 5 against Lam. Monroe split the first two sets before rallying for a 6-3 win in the third to push the Captains into the championship match. The final score for Monroe was 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. 

CNU will next face Mary Washington at 10:00 a.m. in Fredericksburg on Sunday. Live stats and a live video stream will be available for all the action with links found on CNUsports.com.