MOBILE, Ala. - In its seventh consecutive trip to the NAIA Men's Tennis National Championship, William Woods (18-5) found itself in a new situation on Tuesday, opening tournament play with a regular-season rematch. The novelty paid off as the Owls flew past Morningside University (18-5) 4-0 to pick up the first postseason win under head coach Chance Joost.

"I'm proud of the way our team played today, hopefully this is a building block for a successful week," said Joost. "I tell our team every day that you have two choices: you can be negative and pout, or you can be positive and find a solution."

Just as in the teams' initial meeting in March, Woods captured the doubles point, although Morningside's shuffled lineup presented more of a challenge for the Owls. Andres De Los Rios Kolejewska and Felix Diedrichs opened the scoring at the three line with a 6-0 sweep of Winyou Asavarauangchai and Abhishek Mohapatra. WWU's top pairing of Ben Grumley and Zinovii Nahirniak were able to hold off Gustav Sjoberg and Mark Trenkle for a 6-4 win, but the clinch took the best part of an hour, compared to just 20 minutes in Fulton.

In singles play, both teams deployed slight shifts from their March lineup, as Grumley returned to the two line after missing singles play in March, and Mikhil Raja moved up to the five line for the Mustangs and Joao Costa came in at the six.

Vitek Subert made quick work of Raja at the five, however, picking up a 6-0, 6-3 win in just over an hour. Nahirniak lived up to his billing as the 2024 ITA Player To Watch at the three line, allowing Skander Ben Abdallah just two game wins in a 6-1, 6-1 sweep.

With the commanding 3-0 lead, the race for the match-winner came down to De Los Rios Kolejewska at the six line and Grumley at the two. The senior claimed the honors just inside the 90 minute mark, bringing home a 6-3, 6-3 win over Santiago Minetti Sineiro.

The Owls welcome another regular-season rematch on Wednesday, advancing to take on no. 7 seed Southeastern at 9 a.m. in the Mobile Tennis Center. Woods handed Southeastern a 4-2 loss to claim fifth place in the ITA/NAIA National Team Indoor Championships in February.


Match Results
Doubles
1 | Nahirniak, Zinovii/Grumley, Ben 6-4 over Trenkle, Mark/Sjoberg, Gustav
2 | Schneider, Vaclav/Subert, Vitek 5-4 (abd) Ben Abdallah, Skander/Minetti Sineiro, Santiago
3 | Diedrichs, Felix/De Los Rios Kolejewska, Andres 6-0 over Asavaruangchai, Winyou/Mohapatra, Abhishek
Order - 3, 1

Singles
1 | Schneider, Vaclav 7-6(7), 2-0 (abd) Trenkle, Mark
2 | Grumley, Ben 6-3, 6-3 over Minetti Sineiro, Santiago
3 | Nahirniak, Zinovii 6-1, 6-1 over Ben Abdallah, Skander
4 | Mach, Stepan 4-6, 6-3, (abd) Sjoberg, Gustav
5 | Subert, Vitek 6-0, 6-3 over Raja, Mikhil
6 | De Los Rios Kolejewska, Andres 6-2, 5-5 (abd) Costa, Joao
Order - 5, 3, 2