Armstrong! Armstrong !

Buoyed by the "Armstrong ! Armstrong !" cheer of the father of Pirate senior Matus Mydla, Armstrong has taken a 2-1 lead in doubles over West Florida in the NCAA DII Men's Tennis semifinals. Mydla and teammate Jaan Kononov led 7-4 at No. 3 doubles, saw West Florida claim a service break to fight back to 7-6, but Kononov held serve to claim the 8-6 win.

We head into singles play with the No. 2 Pirates holding that slim one point lead. In the other semifinal, top-ranked Barry won three close doubles matches over No. 6 Concordia (NY) to lead 3-0 heading into singles play.

By the way, the NCAA.com has posted the story from Denise Maloof of the Pirates' win over Barry yesterday and the rivalry that has existed between the Bucs and the Pirates. If the doubles scores hold into singles, we will see a renewing of that rivalry on the men's side - and this time it'll be for a national championship !

The 2s Have It - No. 2 Women's Tennis Upends No. 1 Barry, Advances To NCAA Semfinals !

When No. 1 and No. 2 match up in any round of any national tournament, you know you are in for something special. So when two teams who played to a nailbitingly-close 5-4 decision in the regular season took the courts in the NCAA Quarterfinals this afternoon, it was destined to be the match of the tournament. 

And it was.

Marlen Hacke outlasted Barry's Karina Goia, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, at No. 4 singles to clinch a 5-3 win for the No. 2 Pirates over the top-ranked and previously unbeaten Barry Bucs and earn a berth into a 10th straight semifinals for Armstrong women's tennis. Included in that run are five national titles, two runner up finishes and two more third-place finishes. 

The match began with the Pirates taking two of three doubles matches from the Bucs - something they were not able to do in the regular season meeting between the two teams.

With a 2-1 lead heading into singles play, the Pirates and the Bucs each took three first sets in the singles matches. Aleks came up with a quick win over Elisabeth Abanda at No. 1 singles, and when Clara Perez downed Emma Onila in straight sets, the Pirates held a 4-2 lead with three matches left on the court.

Barry won at No. 6 singles, setting up doubles teammates Marlen Hacke and Olga Kalodzitsa with the pressure to close out the win. Olga lost the first set but battled back to win the second set, splitting sets. She would take a 3-0 lead in the third set as well, so you had to feel good about her chances at closing out that match.

Instead, Marlen saw a 5-1 third-set lead whittled away to 5-5, only to come back with a solid service game hold, then a break of Karina Goia's serve to clinch the match with a 7-5 win in the third set. 

So the four teams that are left in the NCAA DII Women's Semifinals are the four teams ranked No. 2 through No. 5 - the Pirates will face No. 4 Hawaii Pacific on Friday, while No. 3 BYU Hawaii will face No. 5 Abilene Christian in the other semifinal match.

Don't read too much into the Pirates' earlier-season win over Hawaii Pacific either. Yes, it was 7-2, but it was a hotly contested match with two three-set singles matches and two more that went to 10-point tiebreakers once the match was clinched. Plus, the Seasiders have experience in having faced the Pirates three times over the last two seasons, not to mention that their quarterfinal win over Southwest Baptist ended about an hour and 15 minutes before the Pirates finished with Barry.

So both Armstrong teams are in the semifinals for the fourth time in program history. The other three times being 2008, 2009 and 2012. We'll let you connect the dots.

Armstrong's matches tomorrow will be on the NCAA.com's video coverage again, and keep tuned to NCAA.com later for coverage of the Pirates' win from Denise Maloof, who is on site writing about the NCAA DII Tennis Championships and interviewed coach Simon Earnshaw after the big win today !

No. 2 Pirate Men's Tennis Plows Into Semifinals

The No. 2-ranked Armstrong men's tennis team got a spark from the No. 2 doubles team of Sven Lalic and Pedro Scocuglia to close out No. 17 Midwestern State, 5-0, and earn a berth into the semifinals.

With two doubles matches secured, Lalic and Scocuglia trailed a break, 6-4, then fought off a match point at 6-7 to eventually force a tiebreaker and prevail, 9-8 (4) to take a commanding 3-0 lead after doubles. After straight-set wins by Pablo Gor and Georgi Rumenov finished off Midwestern State, the Pirates can now look ahead to a semifinal showdown with No. 3 West Florida.

The Pirates and the Argonauts met last season in the NCAA National Championship match as Armstrong won, 5-0, for the program's third national championship. The two teams were scheduled to meet in a neutral-site regular-season matchup this year, but that match got rained out. West Florida's road to the semis include a 5-0 win over Bluefield State and a 5-1 win over UC San Diego.

The other half of the bracket pits No. 1 Barry against No. 6 Concordia (NY), meaning that the four semifinal participants are four of the top five-ranked teams that came to Arizona for the Round of 16.

Check out junior Sven Lalic's comments on the match above, and get ready to root on the Armstrong women as they take on No.1 Barry in the quarterfinals on NCAA.com !

No. 2 Women's Tennis blanks Northwood, sets up showdown with No. 1 Barry

The preliminaries are out of the way as Armstrong blanked Northwood, 5-0, on Wednesday in first-round action and No. 1 Barry did the same to Northeastern State, 5-0, setting up a 1 vs. 2 matchup in the quarterfinals of the DII Women's Tennis National Championships. Check out junior Barbora Krtickova's comments about the match above from ace interviewer and head coach Simon Earnshaw!

There were few upsets in the first day of action in the Round of 16 on the men's or women's side - the only unusual match was UC San Diego rallying from a 3-0 deficit in men's tennis to upend Southern Indiana, 5-3. Congratulations to fellow Peach Belt school Lander for knocking off Cameron and advancing to the quarterfinals in the men's draw. The anticipated Abilene Christian/Columbus State women's match went all the way of the Wildcats as ACU swept the doubles en route to a 5-0 win, eliminating the Cougars.

Both of the Pirates' matches tomorrow - the showdown with Barry and the men's match against Midwestern State - will again be on NCAA.com's live video. There has also been a start time change - the men's match will begin at 9 a.m. local time and the women's match will begin at 1:00 p.m.

No. 2 Pirates Blank New York Tech, 5-0, In Round of 16 Action

The Armstrong men's tennis squad blanked New York Tech, 5-0, to advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Round of 16 on Wednesday morning. The Pirates swept all three doubles matches, then got 6-0, 6-0 wins in singles from Matus Mydla and Pedro Scocuglia.

The Pirates will now take on Midwestern State at 9:00 a.m. in the quarterfinals on Thursday. Listen to Dan Regan talk about the Pirates' win over New York Tech and also the prospects of playing another first-time opponent in Midwestern State tomorrow !

Georgi Rumenov Named ITA DII Men's Tennis National Senior of the Year

At the NCAA's reception on Tuesday night, the ITA announced its national award winners who were in attendance and senior Georgi Rumenov was named the ITA DII Men's Tennis National Senior of the Year. Although Georgi has only been playing for the Pirates for two seasons, he has been ranked No. 1 in the nation in both singles and doubles in every ranking that he has been eligible for. It's truly a great accomplishment for what has been an outstanding career for the Barcelona, Spain, native. 

The ITA Regional award winners were announced last week and the Pirates had a couple of other honorees. Obviously, Georgi was the Southeast Region's men's tennis Senior of the Year, but fellow senior Dan Regan was the Southeast Region's Arthur Ashe Sportsmanship and Leadership awards winner. On the women's side, Marlen Hacke was the ITA Southeast Region's "Player to Watch" and new assistant coach Iuliia Sherrod was the ITA Southeast Region's Assistant Coach of the Year.

Congratulations to all of the Pirates' award winners, and tomorrow it happens for real as action on the court begins in Surprise, Arizona !

Practice in the Desert

The Armstrong tennis teams had their final practice today before the beginning of the NCAA Round of 16 in Surprise, Ariz. 

Those of you remember last year with our DII Spring Sports Festival Blog that women's golf featured prominently in the Pirates' goings-on in Louisville. Well, history repeated itself somewhat today when junior Kristen Sammarco birdied the second playoff hole to earn a bid into the 2013 NCAA Division II Women's Golf Championships, following in the footsteps of Jenna Birch from last season. What this means is, unlike in the past when the tennis season was complete, 

Armstrong athletics will still be in action after Saturday with Sammarco traveling to Daytona Beach and LPGA International for nationals. Two straight individual qualifiers in women's golf and the team advanced to the regionals for the first time... it might be time to contemplate a women's golf blog in the future!

Also, a reminder that the NCAA will be providing live video of matches each day. Armstrong's first-round matches against New York Tech and Northwood (Mich.) will be webstreamed on Wednesday. So catch a peek at the Pirates as they open up their title defense at the NCAA video link to the right!

The NCAA.com also did men's and women's tennis previews for this week's action. Obviously a lot of the pre-championship buildup centers on the Pirates and Barry, but there are other dangerous teams out there, two of which could be the other Peach Belt squads out in Arizona this week - the Columbus State women and the Lander men. The CSU women have a brutal first-round matchup in Abilene Christian - that's #5 vs. #6 in the nation in the first round.

The blog will be back later tonight with pics from the annual ITA Awards Banquet, which is being combined with a welcome banquet from the NCAA held at the Surprise Racquet & Tennis Complex.