Ferris State Men's Tennis Advances To NCAA Midwest Regional Championship Match

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Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University men's tennis team opened the 2016 NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Tournament in impressive fashion as FSU rolled to a quick 5-0 victory over the Lewis (Ill.) Flyers in first-round action Monday (May 9) at the Racquet & Fitness Center in Big Rapids.

The Bulldogs, seeded second in the Midwest Region, advanced to the regional final by sweeping the seventh-seeded Flyers as they improved to 22-4 overall this campaign. It represented FSU's first NCAA postseason home match since 2005 and the Bulldogs are making their 20th all-time NCAA Tournament bid.

With the win, Ferris State will now face third-seeded West Michigan rival Grand Valley State for the third time this year on Tuesday (May 10) in the regional title match starting at 11 a.m. (ET) in Big Rapids. Third-seeded GVSU topped sixth-seeded Missouri-St. Louis by a 5-1 score in the second regional match.

In the victory over the Flyers, FSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead by sweeping the doubles round. The tandem of Vasil Surduk and Nur Admi Ramdani Iswan upset LU's 24th-ranked national pairing of Alan Braschinsky and Mate Srdanovic by an 8-2 score at the number one flight.

The Bulldogs also received a win at two doubles from Till von Winning and Daniil Tarantinov while the number three grouping of Steward Sell and Alex Brown also were victorious. Both duos posted identical 8-5 wins.

In singles action, Ferris State captured the first two completed flights with Sell taking a straight-set win at the fourth spot and Simon Levy capturing a 6-4, 6-1 triumph at six singles.

The winner of the four-team event on the men's side will move on to the NCAA-II round of 16 set for May 18-21 in Denver, Colo. This year marks the first time in which the Bulldogs have hosted NCAA Tourney action in more than 10 years.

Ferris State is hosting one of two Midwest Regional Tourneys with the champions of each both advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. Along with Ferris State, Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Champion Indianapolis was also chosen to host the other Midwest Regional bracket.

Recently, Ferris State won the GLIAC's outright regular-season title for the second-striaght year. The 2016 campaign also represents the first-time ever in which FSU has won both the GLIAC Regular-Season & Tournament Championships in the same year since the tournament moved to its current dual team format. 

This year also marks the first time in which Ferris State claimed the GLIAC Tournament Championship since 2012. It was also only the second league postseason crown in the last 16 years as the 2012 crown was FSU's first since 1999.

With this year's championships, the men's tennis squad became the fifth FSU team to win a conference title this season, joining football, volleyball, men's basketball and hockey teams. The squad is also the fourth of the group to repeat as back-to-back champions this year in the regular-season and the fourth to claim a league postseason tournament crown.

The Bulldogs are currently ranked 35th in the most recent Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) National Rankings.

Below are the complete match results:

#35 Ferris State 5, Lewis Flyers 0
May 09, 2016 at Big Rapids, Mich. (FSU Racquet & Fitness Center)