Men's Tennis Rallies For 4-3 Win In BIG EAST Semifinals

The Marquette University men's tennis team (15-8) rallied for an improbable 4-3 victory over Butler (21-7) Sunday afternoon in the BIG EAST Tournament Presented by Jeep semifinals in Cayce, S.C.

The Golden Eagles, who claimed the program's first-ever league title in 2018 and are making their fifth-straight title match appearance, will face No. 1 seed St. John's at 8 a.m. CT on Monday morning. BEDN will have complete coverage.

"It was an incredible effort by the entire team," head coach Steve Rodecap said. "It's been a long weekend and our guys responded to multiple schedule changes as best they could. I can't say enough about what Luke was able to do to turn that match around."

The match actually started Saturday afternoon, but rain plagued both the men's and women's tournaments this weekend and the conclusion of both semifinals was moved to Sunday morning. Butler opened the match by claiming the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and 3 before rain stopped play.

Marquette moved ahead 2-1 with straight-set wins by junior Brandon Shanklin (No. 6) and sophomore Luis Heredia Gomez (No. 3), but Butler reclaimed momentum with a pair of wins of its own.

Junior Brett Meyers was able to tie the score at 3-3 with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win at No. 4 to setup Luke Smrek's heroics. The junior trailed 4-1 in the third set and was down 30-40 on serve to close out the match. He dropped the opening set, but quickly turned the tables in the second to setup the dramatic conclusion.

MU dropped a 4-2 decision to St. John's on April 7 at Helfaer Tennis Stadium in the regular season matchup between the two programs.