Men's Tennis Advances To BIG EAST Semifinals

The Marquette University men's tennis team (14-8) advanced to the semifinals of the 2019 BIG EAST Tournament Presented by Jeep with a 5-1 victory over Georgetown (6-11) Friday morning at the Cayce Tennis & Fitness Center in Cayce, S.C.

Third-seeded Marquette, which claimed its first-ever league title in 2018, advances to play No. 2 seed Butler at 3 p.m.CT on Saturday afternoon. It will be the second meeting in a week for the two programs. The Bulldogs edged Marquette 4-3 on April 13 in Indianapolis.

Marquette will attempt to reach its fifth-straight championship match on Saturday in the semifinals.

"Our guys were up to the challenge today and I was pleased to see us respond in singles after getting off to a slow start," head coach Steve Rodecap said. "This is an experienced group that knows what it takes to win in the postseason and I thought the entire group showed that today. We know it's going to be more of the same tomorrow as well."

The Golden Eagles opened the match by claiming the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and 3. Senior Alvaro Verdu and junior Brett Meyers earned a 6-4 decision at the top spot and the tandem of freshman Fran San Andres and junior Luke Smrek did the same at No. 3, 6-2.

Meyers made quick work of his opponent at No. 4 and earned a straight-set win, but each of the other three players to claim victories for MU were forced to do so in the third set. Senior Greg Anderson rallied for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 5 and Smrek clinched the team victory with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 decision at No. 2. Smrek won the last four games of the final set to help MU advance.

Sophomore Luis Heredia Gomez also finished off his opponent in three sets just as Smrek was clinching to allow Marquette to claim five total points.