Box Score MIDLAND, Mich. – Purdue Northwest nearly pulled off the upset in the semifinals of the GLIAC Men's Tennis Tournament, but top-seeded Ferris State advanced to the finals with a 4-2 victory over the fourth-seeded Pride in a match that took four hours to complete.

"We faced an undefeated team today with a rich tennis tradition. Our athletes stepped up to the challenge and played incredible tennis the whole day," said head coach Lucian Tabic. "We had momentum going into singles play and it was a hard-fought battle to the end. I couldn't be more proud of how hard our guys worked all year, it's been a great season. Looking forward to next fall and to what we can continue accomplishing with this group." 

PNW (9-6) got out to 1-0 lead by way of taking the doubles point thanks to wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 flights. Levent Evyapan and Miguel Agustin Flores Cepeda took down Ferris State's Mathis Guerre and Jan Koupil 7-5 in the No. 1-doubles flight.

Leon Kah and Luca Kirchhoff clinched the point for the Pride with a 7-6 (4) victory over Benjamin Lortie and Josh McDermott for the early 1-0 lead.

Kah, a senior from Munich, Germany, would give PNW its second point with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win at No. 2 singles over Koupil.

With the Pride leading 2-1 in the team match, Ferris State mounted a comeback to remain unbeaten on the season at 14-0 overall.

Kirchhoff, Evyapan and Jonas Franssen played outstanding singles matches but came up just short in the squad's upset bid Kirchhoff lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Lortie in the No. 3-singles flight and Evyapan and Franssen were defeated in flights four and five, respectively, by the set scores of 4-6, 6-4 and 6-2.

Ferris State advances to Sunday morning's GLIAC title contest against Grand Valley State with the winner taking home an automatic bid into the NCAA Division II national tournament.

NEXT UP
PNW will take on No. 3 seed Wayne State in the third-place match with first serve scheduled for 8 a.m. CDT at the Greater Midland Tennis Center.