Wake Forest Wins NCAA Tennis Title

The Wake Forest men's tennis team won its first national championship Tuesday, the second such major victory for the Demon Deacons this week.

Wake Forest had a lot going for it heading into the NCAA finals against Ohio State, entering the tournament as the number one seed and playing in front of a hometown crowd at the Wake Forest Tennis Center not far from campus.

As it turned out, they needed every advantage they could get.

Wake struck first, winning a point for taking the doubles round. That meant a split of the six singles matches would give the Deacons the title.

Skander Mansouri and Petros Chrysochos both dominated their matches, but Ohio State also won two points.

Wake clung to a tight 3-2 lead, with a tiebreaker being played on one court as Deacon player Bar Botzer was capping off a stunning comeback on another.

When Botzer finally won 7-5, it clinched the Deacon victory. Wake Forest finished the season with a 31-2 record, the most wins in the program's history.

Stunning as it was, it wasn't even the first national championship of the week for the Deacons. Jennifer Kupcho won the individual title for women's golf on Monday in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

The NCAA tennis title represents the school's ninth team championship, joining men's baseball (1955), men's golf (1974, '75, '86), men's soccer (2007) and women's field hockey (2002, '03, '04).