The men’s tennis team of Prairie View A&M University won SWAC for the 19th time annually, and is automatically placed in the NCAA Division I Tennis Championships, which will be held in May.Previous matches had ended with more losses than wins for the team. This time around PVAMU was determined to bring a win home.
When the match began, PVAMU had fallen behind Alcorn State in the doubles round. First, doubles Jimmy Yates and Kristen Powell were unable to hold their ground playing against opponents Anton Krutkin and Alexandar Lidzar of ALCN, and were defeated with a final score of 8-5.
Second doubles was unable to finish their match, while third doubles Christopher Jordan and Jose Garcia were instantly blown out by Alcorn States players Pushpendra Rajpurohit and Winfried Weinbeer, with the final score set at 8-0.
Coach John Cochran of the Panthers tennis team was a bit shocked regarding the performance of doubles.
“We were kind of down after doubles as we came out flat at No. 2 and No. 3,” Cochran said. “The number two team regrouped and had a shot to win but lost it at the end. If they would’ve pulled it out, the point was going to be ours because we were winning the match that was halted.”
First singles player Kuda Nyatoti of PVAMU brought the first win home to his team after he defeated Alcorn State’s Anton Krutkin with the final score set at 6-3,6-1.
The SWAC championship match in Alexandria, La. was extra special for PVAMU’s Craig Wiltz and family, as Wiltz’s sister, Megan, helped lead Southern University to the women’s championship as a senior. Craig helped lead his team as well and picked up his first title as a freshman, with his family in attendance.
Cochran said, “This was a special day for the Wiltz family, they’re a good family and you couldn’t ask for anything more.”
PVAMU earned the third seed from the SWAC West. PV begun its tournament run with back-to-back victories over No. 2 Jackson State and No. 1 Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Cochran couldn’t be more proud to see his team set out to accomplish a goal and actually attain it. He gave his team Monday off due to the win.
“We’ll probably scrimmage ourselves most of the time but I may try to pick up another match if possible, because the tournament won’t begin until mid-May,” Cochran said.