Peach Belt 20 in 20 - Game #20 - Men’s Tennis: Lander vs. Armstrong Atlantic State, April 15, 2006

In a match that perhaps signaled a great changing of the guard in PBC men’s tennis, Armstrong Atlantic State defeated Lander 5-4 in the greatest PBC men’s tennis tournament final ever played. Lander, the eight-time national champion (1993-2000) entered the PBC final ranked #11 in the nation while Armstrong Atlantic State was defending their 2005 PBC Tournament title and ranked #7 in the nation.

The two teams had a history, AASU finished second to Lander in the PBC Tournament for five straight years (94-98 when it was a flighted tournament) and lost to Lander 5-4 in the 2000 final, the first dual-match championship in the PBC.

In 2006, the regular-season match had been rained out, so the teams entered the PBC final both undefeated in conference play at 6-0 and co-Champions.

Armstrong Atlantic State's Davor Zink won the pivotal match of the tournament final and was named the Tournament MVP.

Armstrong Atlantic State came into the championship match exhausted from a 5-4 marathon win over USC Upstate the day before. Played at the Palmetto Tennis Center in Sumter, S.C., AASU took two of the three doubles matches, both wins going 9-8 with Robert Jendelund and Taavo Roos winning the tiebreak with four and Cristian Easton and Davor Zink with five.

“It was incredibly hot there,” recalls AASU head coach Simon Earnshaw. “We were in pieces, the match on Saturday with USC Upstate had our players cramping. At #1 doubles Jendelund and Roos had faced (Lander’s) Ivarsson and Karlsson three times that season including the PBC final and they had match point on us all three times – but still we found a way to win.”

Lander responded by taking two straight-set wins in singles as Nicolas Legros won at #2 and Nicholas Tzekos at #6. AASU’s Jendelund won in straight sets at #4, but the other three singles matches all went three sets.

Lander’s Nicolas Legros beat Paul Bishop in three sets but AASU got a big point at #5 as David Secker beat Andre Ivarsson. “Secker looked like he was finished,” said Earnshaw. “Ivarsson held serve all through the set. By the third set, Secker’s backhand was almost gone. Ivarsson served to his backhand and David hit it as hard as he could and it went in. He then shanked the next one and it went in for a winner. It wasn’t until those two shots I thought we had a shot to win the match.”

Secker won 7-6 (7-3) in the third set to even the match at 3-3,leaving AASU’s Davor Zink and Lander’s Stefan Tewes on the court at #1 doubles. That match was going slowly and was still in the second set when all the other matches were complete.

“It was three all in the second set,” said Earnshaw. “Tewes was getting tired and Davor was never going to get tired. Davor hadn’t played long matches in the tournament and was probably our freshest player – just by luck. So once Davor started running him, the guy started getting tighter and tighter and it was kind of like the elastic snapped.”

Tewes took the first set 7-6 (7-5) but Zink bounced back to take the second 6-3 and then ran away in the third 6-1 to claim the title. Zink was named the tournament MVP.

Armstrong Atlantic won the national championship in both 2008 and 09. “We were neck-and-neck with Lander and Upstate for several years,” said Earnshaw. “But this particular run gave us this little edge and it kind of grew into a much larger advantage over time. Psychologically, it helped us more as we went on to win the national titles with some of those same players in the following years.

“It almost doesn’t make sense that we won that tournament given how tough the matches were. But I knew we had some guys that had some strong character and were going to give it all for our team. We showed a lot of resilience.”

Click here for an index of the 20 Greatest PBC Games.