OWENSBORO, Ky. – The top two seeds in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Tennis Championship bracket will be playing for the title following Friday’s semifinal victories.
 
No. 1 Tiffin defeated No. 4 Walsh, 4-2, and No. 2 Findlay ousted No. 3 seed and defending tourney champ Hillsdale, 4-0, as both matches were played to the point of decision. 
 
That will set the stage for a showdown on Saturday morning with the men’s final scheduled to get underway at the Owensboro Centre Courts with a 9:30 a.m. CT start.
 
Led by newly-minted Great Midwest Coach of the Year Phil Conley, the Dragons buckled down to win doubles although credit is given to Walsh for making things interested with a win at the No. 2 pairing. 
 
That left all-conference selections Toby Cutting and Nikita Parfenov to emerge with a 6-3 win to earn the doubles point. 
 
Both Cutting and Parfenov would give the Dragons a 3-0 team lead on the Cavaliers, but Walsh bounced back as Great Midwest Freshman of the Year Jakob Riglewski won a fierce battle vs. TU’s No. 1 Santiago de la Rosa Mora in three sets.
 
Riglewski and Alex Medina at No. 5 gave the Cavaliers their two points of the match. Sorin Navrotchi, a senior who was the most recent conference athlete of the week, spoiled Walsh’s hopes for rallying with a tough 7-6, 7-6, win at No. 3 singles.
 
Breaking down Findlay’s win over Hillsdale, Great Midwest Player of the Year Tomas Kmetko shined in the semifinals while giving the Oilers a point in singles and helping UF sweep doubles action for a team point. 
 
Kmetko defeated HC’s Charlie Adams in straight sets while first team all-conference selection Jorge Barnuevo replicated the same results with a near flawless performance at No. 2 singles. 
 
During the regular season, Tiffin had the upper hand on Findlay back on April 7 as the Dragons earned a 4-1 win to help clinch the regular-season title.