Back In Savannah, Pirates Bring Trophies Home !

The Pirates returned to Savannah at 5:50 p.m. on Sunday after a long cross country flight that started with a very early 4:30 a.m. wakeup call for coaches, administrators and staff. But it was well worth it to bring yet more hardware back to Armstrong - national championship trophy for the women and national finalist trophy for the men !

First, a little quick look back at yesterday's historic win for the women's tennis team - the recap from NCAA.com's Denise Maloof as well as the official match highlights from NCAA.com video .

We wanted to give you the video of the clinching point, but we also talked to Marlen Hacke and head coach Simon Earnshaw after the matches, so we've got that video at the end of this blog post.

One more bit of writing came from the NCAA.com's Denise Maloof late Friday as she put into perspective the coaching career of coach Earnshaw and the Pirate tennis programs in another good read. 

The blog also wants to congratulate the No. 4 Armstrong softball team for winning twice on Sunday - mostly while the Pirate tennis teams were mid-flight - to capture the NCAA Southeast Softball Regional #1 and advance to the Super Regionals, which will be hosted on May 17-18. As we wrote about earlier, often the tennis teams' results are the last for Armstrong athletics for the year, but the Pirates have done so well this season that play will go for another week at least with softball and women's golfer Kristen Sammarco, and possibly even longer if Armstrong baseball receives an at-large berth into the NCAA Championships, which will be announced tonight at 10 p.m.

So watch the videos and celebrate what has been another successful trip to the NCAA Championships with Armstrong tennis. Go Pirates !

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS ! 8 Is Great For Armstrong Women's Tennis

It wasn't the start, but the finish for Armstrong women's tennis as the Pirates picked up their eighth NCAA Division II National Championship with a 5-2 win over BYU Hawaii. Leading 2-1 after doubles, the Pirates watched the Seasiders take the first set in five of six singles matches.

Undaunted, Armstrong battled back to take five of six second sets  - BYU Hawaii took No. 1 singles, but Barbora Krtickova won her No. 3 doubles match in straight sets.

With the score 3-2, Natasa Vukovic battled from losing her first set 6-0 to claim a three-set win at No. 6 singles. That left Marlen Hacke at No. 4 singles with the huge opportunity to close out the national title - which she did, winning her third set 6-1 and clinching the championship with the point above.

Even though the scoreline and the results were much the same from last year's win over the Seasiders, the two matches could not have been more different. And as coach Simon Earnshaw says in our game recap, it's fitting that if Armstrong was to become the program with the most national titles in women's tennis, then they would have to beat BYU Hawaii in the title match to do it.

The Pirates are national champions and no other women's tennis program in NCAA Division II is more successful than Armstrong Atlantic State University. As satisfying as that is to type, it's more satisfying to all - players, coaches, fans - who have been involved with the Pirate tennis program over the years. Success is built one brick at a time and there are many, many bricks that make up what has become a truly dominant collegiate athletic program.

So, if you are in the neighborhood, drop by the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport on Sunday around 5:15 p.m. to help welcome back the National Champions to Savannah !

No. 2 Pirates Lead No. 3 BYU Hawaii, 2-1, After Doubles

Buoyed by doubles wins by Marlen Hacke and Olga Kalodzitsa at No. 2 doubles and Clara Perez and Natasa Vukovic at No. 3 doubles, the Armstrong women's tennis team is taking a 2-1 lead heading into singles play in the NCAA DII Women's Tennis National Championship match on Saturday afternoon.

In this rematch of the 2012 NCAA DII title match, the doubles results were the exact same as last year. Remember, in last year's match, it was wins at the bottom that propelled the Pirates to their seventh NCAA DII national title - so all eyes are on Marlen, Olga and Natasa to deliver in singles play as they did in doubles play to bring home what would be an NCAA Division II record eighth women's tennis title ! Go Pirates !

Adversity Reveals True Character; Pirates Never Say Die

In almost any other situation, facing the No. 1 team in the nation and a 3-0 deficit after doubles on the biggest stage in NCAA DII tennis, you would think that a match might be considered all but over.

But the defending national champion No. 2-ranked Pirates fought back. And back. And back.

Taking the first set in five of the first six singles matches, Armstrong quickly climbed back into the match with straight-set wins by Dan Regan, Pablo Gor, Matus Mydla and Georgi Rumenov. With the score at 4-4, Pedro Scocuglia and Barry's Leo Vivas battled deep into the third set, but as Barry prevailed with the third-set win and the 5-4 victory, the true character of the defending national champions was on display for all to see. 

At the end of what has been an amazing run for Armstrong over the last six seasons - three national championships and wins in 174 of 180 matches - it truly has been outstanding amount of success for the Pirates. And although Armstrong loses its top three singles players in seniors Dan Regan, Georgi Rumenov and Matus Mydla, the returners will be fueled with the fire to return Armstrong tennis back to the top of the DII heap.

Work To Do

No two ways about it, the No. 2-ranked Pirates have their backs against the wall. Barry won all three doubles matches in the NCAA DII National Championship match this morning - two in tiebreakers and one tiebreaker where the Pirates had four match points - to take a 3-0 lead as we head into singles play.

Once in this national championships has a team come from 3-0 down to win - that was UC San Diego in a 5-3 Round of 16 win over Southern Indiana. 

Only once in head coach Simon Earnshaw's career have the Pirates come back from a 3-0 deficit to win - way back on February 26, 2000, when Armstrong trailed Francis Marion in a similar situation with losing two doubles matches in tiebreakers, but came back to sweep the singles matches to win 6-3 over the Patriots.

Also, the Armstrong softball team is facing elimination today after falling, 2-0, to Columbus State in this morning's winner's bracket game. The Pirates play at 4 p.m. to stay alive in the regional.

Wherever you are today, help the Pirates dig deep and battle back. It may be daunting, but it's not impossible. Nothing's impossible when you're a Pirate !

No. 2 Pirates Back In The Title Match ! Defeat No. 4 Hawaii Pacific, 5-2

First of all, the blog has to apologize - due to operator error, the video of Dan Regan's match point of Armstrong's 5-2 win over West Florida is unviewable. However, we did catch a rare feat in the women's match as Natasa Vukovic's match point in the Pirates' 5-2 win over Hawaii Pacific was on the video. In a second-set tiebreak, Vukovic's opponent, Lea Kruse-Utermann, called a ball out on 6-4 in the tiebreaker, but the chair umpire overruled the call, giving Vukovic and the Pirates the win.

The national semifinals are the first time in the tournament in which chair umpires are on each singles match - once you reach the Round of 16, you have chair umpires on each doubles matches but they still use roving officials until you get down to four teams. Today we had two matches ended on overrules by the officials - Georgi Rumenov's singles win over West Florida's Bruno Savi ended similarly - but it is quite rare to see that happen for match point to end a team match. Again, had the match been played in the quarters or the Round of 16.. the women's match might still be going on now!

Nevertheless, the Pirates are back in the national championship match for a 13th time in school history, where No. 3 BYU Hawaii awaits in a rematch of last year's championship match. For you numerology fans, the number 7 has a big significance in tomorrow's match. Armstrong has won 7 NCAA Division II national championships in women's tennis. So has BYU Hawaii, which is tied for tops in NCAA DII history. The meeting on Saturday will be the seventh time that the two teams have met for the title as each school has won three previous meetings.

Today's match started later because of the four-plus hour men's match preceding it. Doubles was less than an hour - big wins by Aleksandra Filipovski and Barbora Krtickova at No. 1 doubles and Marlen Hacke and Olga Kalodzitsa at No. 2 doubles. Singles wins went in straight sets to Filipovski and Hacke and Vukovic's match winner finished in that second set tiebreak. BYU Hawaii won over Abilene Christian, 5-2, in a match that essentially lasted the same amount of time as the Pirates' match, they just finished quicker because the Barry men's match was quicker. 

Live video of both national championship matches will again be on NCAA.com, and live stats will continue. Be forewarned - if the live stats aren't updating deep into the match, it might be because the blog is trying to get video of match point. We don't want a duplicate of what happened today !

No. 2 Pirates outlast No. 3 West Florida, head into NCAA Championship match

When Dan Regan's final point in his marathon No. 3 singles match finished, the No. 2-ranked Armstrong men's tennis team put the cap on a four-plus hour gruelling ordeal to earn the program's fourth berth into the NCAA DII Men's Tennis National Championship match. After the Pirates had a slim 2-1 lead after doubles, the two teams each took three first sets in singles play.

Armstrong won two matches in straight sets - from top-ranked Georgi Rumenov and Pablo Gor - but West Florida won in straight sets at No. 5, leaving three other singles matches out on the court and all in third sets.

We'll have video of the clinching point from Regan later, but now we look ahead briefly to the championship match tomorrow at 9 a.m. as Armstrong faces No. 1-ranked Barry - 5-0 winners over Concordia (NY) - for the title. In 2009, the two teams met in Sanlando Park and it was a match for the ages with Rafael Array winning a third-setter in a match that lasted exactly five hours.

Earlier this season, the two teams met in Miami Shores, Fla., and Barry won that meeting 5-4. So all indications are that tomorrow's match will be about as even as you can get, especially between No. 1 and No. 2.

Also want to send along congratulations to the Armstrong softball team, who knocked off Wingate, 2-1, in the NCAA Southeast Regional in Savannah. They will take on Columbus State at 11 a.m. on Saturday - 8 am here in Arizona ! - in a winner's bracket matchup.