Tiger Men Earn Shutout Win Over Oglethorpe to Advance to SCAC Finals

North Little Rock, Ark. – The top-seeded Trinity Tigers shut out the No. 5 Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels 5-0 Saturday in the semifinals of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Men’s Championship Tournament at Burns Park Tennis Center.

Trinity (15-9, 11-4 against NCAA Division III opponents), ranked 14th in nation, will play for the SCAC Championship against defending champion DePauw at 8 a.m. Sunday. The winner receives an automatic bid to the NCAA regional tournament. The Tigers, who have won 11 straight matches, will play in their 19th consecutive SCAC Championship match. DePauw, the SCAC’s No. 2 seed, ranked 16th nationally, beat Trinity 6-3 in last year’s final.

Trinity’s Bobby Coacoughner and Cory Kowal won No. 1 doubles, beating Oglethorpe’s Alex Biffle and Felix Mann 8-1. Max Frey and Erick DelaFuente took No. 2 doubles, defeating Bryan Bailey and Lawrence Sweatman 8-2. No. 3 doubles went to the Tiger team of Ben Carroll and Don Murray, 8-1 winners over Masen Shreve and Timothy Tanko.

Only two singles matches were completed, due to the rain-shortened schedule.

Cocanougher defeated Biffle 6-2, 6-0 at No. 1 singles. The clincher was at No. 4 singles, as Kowal bested Tanko 6-1, 6-0.

The Tigers have captured 14 SCAC Championships, starting with the team’s first conference title in 1992.  The Tigers also won 13 straight championships from 1994-2006.