Ochoa and Uhle celebrating
Tyler Schueck
8
Winner Penn State Berks PSBM (8-6, 5-0 NEAC)
1
Penn College PCTM (5-6, 2-1 NEAC)
Winner
Penn State Berks PSBM
(8-6, 5-0 NEAC)
8
Final
1
Penn College PCTM
(5-6, 2-1 NEAC)

Match Recap: Men's Tennis |

Men's tennis downs Penn College in regular season finale

WILLIAMSPORT, PA - The Penn State Berks men's tennis team topped Penn College, 8-1, in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) regular season finale for the Nittany Lions on Friday afternoon.

Berks won its sixth straight match to improve to 8-6 overall and 5-0 in NEAC play, which makes them the outright regular season conference champion for the first time since the 2007-08 season. Berks and Abington finished last year as co-champions after their regular season contest got canceled due to weather issues. The Nittany Lions will enter the conference tournament next week as the No. 1 seed and will face the No. 4 seed in the semifinal round.

The Nittany Lions claimed two of the three doubles bouts to jump out to an early lead. The No.2  duo of Curtis Uhle and Federico Ochoa continued their strong play together with an 8-3 victory over Garrett Benner and Will Demarco. Grant Batzer and Shane Leaf stayed unbeaten while playing together in doubles with an 8-0 shutout at the third flight. The No. 1 pair of Will Byler and Diego Olazagasti suffered an 8-3 setback to Luke Whitenight and Blake Whitmire.

Byler and Olazagasti both avenged their losses in with wins at the top two singles spots. Byler topped Whitenight (6-3, 6-4) at the No. 1 spot, while Olazagasti had a 6-1, 6-0 triumph over Whitmire at the second spot. Uhle (No. 3) was a 6-0, 6-4 winner and Batzer (No. 5) had a quick 6-0, 6-0 to round out the Berks two-set victories. Ochoa dropped his first set 6-3 at No. 4 singles, but bounced back with a 6-4 win in the second. He finished off the comeback with a 10-3 win in the third set tiebreaker. Leaf (No. 6) dropped a heartbreaker in the first set, falling 7-6 (7-5 tiebreak). He evened it up with a 6-3 second set win and finished off his counterpart with thrilling 10-8 win in the tie-break.

Berks will wait for the rest of the conference to finish league play to see who they will face in the postseason. Penn College, Penn State Abington, and Lancaster Bible College have all clinched a spot in the tournament, but could all finish someone in the No. 2-4 seed. The semifinal round will take place on Friday, April 27 and the championship will take place on Saturday, April 28. The entire NEAC Tournament will take place at Birchwood Tennis Club in Clarks Summit, PA.
 
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