April 21, 2007

NASHVILLE, Tenn. ---- The Samford men's tennis team will join the Samford women in the finals of the O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Tennis Tournament Sunday afternoon as the Bulldogs take on in-state rival Jacksonville State. Samford advanced Saturday after it defeated the Golden Eagles of Tennessee Tech, 4-0.

The Samford men began by collecting the doubles point as the Bulldogs won two out of three matches. Silveira/Huffman dropped the first match at the No. 1 court to Gilioli/Zarco, but Misner/Grant and Dushock/De Wet picked up wins at the second and third courts to claim the point for the Bulldogs.

Hank Grant, Kelwin De Wet and Manuel Miletic took three straight matches on the back three courts to claim the victory for the Bulldogs. Grant defeated Mitchell Hubert at the No.4 court (6-1, 6-3) while De Wet defeated Juan Pablo Gomez at the No. 5 court, 6-2, 7-5. Miletic sewed things up with a win at the No. 6 court over James Bennett (6-0, 7-5).

Sunday, Samford will face the team who ended their win streak and knocked them out of the top spot in the conference. Jacksonville State received a bye to the semifinals as the number one seed for the men. The Gamecocks defeated the number four seed Saturday to make their way into the finals.

Match play between the Samford men and Jacksonville State begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday, following the match between the Samford women and Murray State at 10 a.m.