Alexandros Caldwell won his 18th match of the season but none were bigger than the one that gave the Radford University men’s tennis team a victory over No. 2 Campbell and claimed their first Big South Championship Title since 2012.
Radford University is the 2019 Big South men’s tennis champs
The Highlanders held a 3-2 lead with two courts left to finish. Caldwell battled back after he lost the first set 6-3 and won the second 7-6 (7-3 tiebreaker). That gave him momentum to go ahead 3-0 in the third set. Raphael Calzi battled back and cut the lead to one, 3-2. Caldwell went up 5-3 and was one point away from sending Radford to the NCAA Tournament. He took a 40-15 lead and served the ball. After a few rallies, Calzi hit a return long and it landed out of play. The senior dropped his racquet and stuck his hands in the air as he teammates met him to celebrate.
The match was very hard-fought, and the Highlanders set the tone early taking the doubles point. All six matches were neck-and-neck to start and Campbell took court 5 and knotted the match at one. Dustin Werner, the Camels No. 1 player, defeated Yevhen Sirous, 7-5 and 6-2, giving the No. 2 seed a 2-1 lead.
Shortly after that Andres Silva won his third match of the Big South Championships and it tied the match at two. In the meantime, Michiel Meekers was battling Gerard Sola on court 4. Meekers won the final set 6-4, which put the Highlanders one set away from clinching the match.
Rodrigo Magalhaes was very close to winning the second set and propelling the Highlanders to hoisting the trophy. However, Bastien Huon won the seventh point in a set tiebreaker in the second set and sent it to a third.
Magalhaes was tied with Huon, 3-3, when Caldwell clinched the match and sent Radford back to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in program history.
Head coach Rob Bareford is the first coach in program history to win a Big South Tournament Championship in his first year at the helm.
–RU Athletics
