NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- In a thrilling conference tournament semifinal matchup on Saturday afternoon, the second-seeded Christopher Newport men's tennis team came from behind for a thrilling 4-2 win against No. 29 Salisbury University (13-6). With the victory, the Captains advance to the 2025 Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Championship on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. and will take on the top-seeded University of Mary Washington.
The Captains won four singles matches to come from behind on a steamy Saturday afternoon at the Eyre Courts on campus in Newport News. Playing in front of a raucous crowd, the conference rivals went back-and-forth throughout the match with each team turning every point into a pivotal moment.
In doubles play, the Sea Gulls jumped ahead by capturing wins at No. 2 and 3. CNU locked up the first win of the match at No. 1 when senior
Ashton Legum paired up with junior
Vincent Truong for a 6-4 win against regionally-ranked Jhayden Pappas and Asher Willenborg. On the other two courts, the Captains rallied back to put up a good fight in pairs play; at No. 3,
Rainer Christiansen and
Alex Seretis fought up set point in four consecutive games and pressed Aron Burzstyn and Gurv Suri to win a seventh game to clinch the doubles point. At No. 2, Gianluca Beaujon and Mitchell Desman just outlasted the partnership of
Edvard Porsmyr Hansen and
Gabe Smith, 7-5.
Trailing 1-0 headed into singles, the Captains quickly flipped the score in favor of the home team with the first two wins at No. 5 and No. 4. Legum capped a two-victory performance with a 6-4, 6-0 win at No. 5 against Beaujon, evening the score at one point apiece. Then, Porsmyr Hansen thrilled his fans with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Nicholas O'Dea at No. 4 to put the Captains in front, 2-1.
Willenborg picked up a key win for Salisbury at No. 1, 6-2, 6-4, against Truong, knotting the match up temporarily, 2-2, but rookie
Gabe Smith secured the go-ahead point again with a 6-0, 6-4 win at No. 6 against Desman.
Needing just one more victory to clinch the semifinal victory, CNU leaned on sophomore
Nesh Kumaresan at No. 2, taking on Pappas. After rolling to a first-set victory, 6-1, Kumaresan had to fight off a valiant effort from Pappas as the second set went to a tiebreaker. WIth the only other match going stretched to a third set, the decisive point would come down to the CNU second-year holding off Pappas in the breaker, 7-5.
With the win, the Captains celebrated the postseason victory and advanced to the conference championship for the second straight season and the third time in the last four years. CNU will look to knock off the three-time defending champion Eagles, who were also tested on Saturday before clinching a 4-2 win over #4 UC Santa Cruz.
