Top-Seeds Houghton and Nazareth to Meet in 2021 Empire 8 Championships After Semifinal Wins

Men's Tennis | 5/7/2021 8:40:27 PM

Top-seeds Houghton College and Nazareth College advance to the 2021 Empire 8 Men's Tennis Championship match after earning victories in semifinal action Friday. Houghton recorded a 5-0 victory over No. 4 seed Alfred, while No. 2 Nazareth rallied to defeat No. 3 seed St. John Fisher, 5-4.
 
Houghton will host Nazareth in the 2021 Empire 8 Championship match at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The league champion receives an automatic berth into the 2021 NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Championship, which begins May 14-16, with first, second and third round action. Houghton has won both previous meetings between the two schools this season, 8-1 on April 17 and 6-3 on May 1.

NO. 1 HOUGHTON 5, NO. 4 ALFRED 0
Houghton is moving into their third consecutive Empire 8 tournament finals appearance after their 5-0 win over Alfred University on Friday afternoon.

In the semi-final action against Alfred, Houghton jumped out to a commanding 3-0 lead, sweeping the doubles play. After a few tight games to start the match, the men settled in to play some of their best doubles as a collective unit. Micah Schilke and Jake Fisler battled to win the top spot 8-4, Ethan Yung and Levi Webb rolled to an 8-2 victory at the second position, and closing out the doubles action was Ben McKay and Adam Brown with a decisive 8-3 win at the third spot.

The Highlanders celebrated Senior night before the match and it was only fitting that seniors Ethan Yung and Jake Fisler closed out the match with 6-2, 6-2 and 6-1, 6-1 singles victories at the first and second spots respectively. The two seniors have undoubtedly been the anchor for the Highlanders throughout the year and proved to be so yet again. Jake Fisler added his 84th career win today, which makes him the all-time leader in victories in Houghton tennis's history as well.

NO. 2 NAZARETH 5, NO. 3 ST. JOHN FISHER 4
Junior Ryan Lalik earned the decisive point for second-seeded Nazareth Friday as the Golden Flyers edged third-seeded St. John Fisher, 5-4. Nazareth defeated the Cardinals for the third time this season to improve to 7-2 overall.

Nazareth needed Lalik's point Friday at sixth singles as he defeated Fisher's Jon Sutherland convincingly 6-0, 6-0. Senior Tyler Luong had squared the match at 4-4 with a straight-set triumph at fifth singles.

Nazareth led 2-1 after the three doubles matches. The Golden Flyers got wins from Nate Allen and Tommy Daviau at first doubles and from Lalik and Dominic Vito at third doubles.

Fisher rallied with singles wins at #2, #3 and #4, before Nazareth came back with a straight-set win from Allen at first singles, plus the wins from Luong and Lalik.