Texas Men’s Tennis advanced to the NCAA National Championship Match with a 4-3 victory over No. 2 seed TCU on May 16 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia. This will be the second time in three years and fourth time overall that Texas has reached the final.
The match was closely contested, with Texas overcoming an early deficit after losing the doubles point. Sophomore Oliver Ojakaar evened the score for Texas before TCU regained and then lost leads throughout singles play. The decisive moment came when senior Sebastian Gorzny saved five match points late in his second set before clinching victory for Texas in a third set.
Head coach Bruce Berque said, “I am super proud of the team again today. Obviously, they were really resilient. We knew TCU had a fantastic doubles point, so we were determined to come out and really go after it. I felt like we did that pretty well, we just couldn’t execute all the way down to the finish, and that’s when the marathon began. We were down and out many times. Most notably, Sebastian Gorzny saved multiple match points and showed his composure, resilience, and toughness. Kalin Ivanovski was super impressive, and to win (singles courts) 1, 2, 3, and 4 against TCU, which is no small task, I’m really proud of our team.”
Freshman Kalin Ivanovski also contributed significantly by winning a third-set tiebreaker at No. 2 singles after being inspired by Gorzny’s comeback on another court: “When I saw Gorzny save all of those match points…that really boosted me…it was just a really tough battle…I’m just happy I stayed tough.”
Gorzny reflected on his performance saying: “I wasn’t playing very well…I just thought at some point if I keep giving myself chances one has to come…Luckily it came at the last moment.”
Texas will face Virginia in Sunday’s championship match; both teams have made three finals appearances each over seven years.
