©Colette Lewis 2007--
Athens, GA--
Middle Tennessee State's Dale Short announced his retirement last month, and his doubles team of Marco Born and Andreas Siljestrom gave him the perfect gift, winning the NCAA Men's doubles championship on Monday over defending champions Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe of Illinois, 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6 (4).
"It was a tearful moment," said Siljestrom, a senior from Sweden, who is nicknamed "Doc" for his surgeon-like hands. "I almost had tears coming out myself. He's been a great coach over twenty years and he really deserved this win. No one from MTSU has ever won an NCAA championship so we're very happy, and proud of ourselves too."
As the scores would indicate, the match, between two No. 5 seeds, couldn't have been closer. With Rowe the shortest player on the court at 6-foot-5, it's not surprising that the points would be short and dominated by serving.
Illinois broke Siljestrom in the first set, the only break until Born dropped his serve at 4-all in the second. Rowe stepped to the line to serve out the match for the Fighting Illini at 5-4, but he didn't get a first serve in until 0-40, and by then it was too late; he was broken at love. Siljestrom faced two break points at 5-all, but served his way out of them, and Anderson held to force the tiebreak.
Rowe's serving woes continued in the tiebreak as he threw in two double faults, the second at 5-all to give the Blue Raiders the only opening they needed. Moments later, Siljestrom's service winner evened the match.
"We kind of felt like he was going to crack a little bit there, when we saw him double faulting in the tiebreaker," said Born, a 6-foot-9 German. "That's where the momentum shifted," said Siljestrom, also 6-foot-9. "Right at that point, when we got it to 6-5 and served for the set."
The third set was a lot of short points, with either serves or first volleys deciding most of the points. Down 5-6, Siljestrom, tossing and re-tossing the ball on his every serve, double faulted twice, the second time to give Illinois a match point. But he regrouped, hitting a first serve that Anderson couldn't handle, and two points later, a third set tiebreak would decide the championship.
Predictably, there were mostly service winners and return errors in the tiebreak, but a volley error by Rowe was the only misstep by the Illini on their own serve. Unfortunately for Rowe, a junior from Moline, Illinois, it was all the Middle Tennessee team needed, with Born serving it out for the title.
"Two tough tiebreaks," Rowe said. "It could have gone either way, but it went their way today. They played some really good doubles, stayed strong under pressure, and they were the better team today."
It seemed clear enough when the women's final started who the better team was, as Megan Moulton-Levy and Katarina Zoricic of William and Mary College zipped through their first set against Sara Anundsen and Jenna Long of the University of North Carolina 6-1. But the 6-2 second set was just as resoundingly in favor of the Tar Heels, and they rode the wave, taking the championship 6-2 in the third set.
"We played a tough first set, and thought we had it after the first set," said Moulton-Levy, who announced she has had a year of eligibility restored by the NCAA. "But we stopped playing our game and they took advantage of it and went full force for it."
The Tribe team, seeded No. 1, hadn't lost a set in the tournament, but Anundsen, a senior from Colorado, thought the tight matches she and Long had survived actually helped them.
"We had some really close matches, definitely our second match (a 7-6, 7-5 win over Olga Borisova and Mariann Yuferova of Virginia Commonwealth) we didn't know if we were going to pull through that one. I think that helped us."
"Yesterday's match, a three-setter (against No. 4 seeds Ana Cetnik and Anna Sydorska of TCU), was pretty close," said Long, a senior from California. "I think having a close match and getting through it gave us a lot of confidence for today also."
Semifinalists at last year's NCAA championships, Anundsen and Long got an early break in the final set to go up 2-0, but at 2-1 Anundsen found herself down 0-40 and in danger of giving it back. But a combination of their touch and errors by the William and Mary team--and a strategy change--earned them the next five points and a crucial hold.
"Brian (coach Kalbas) told us to use the lob more up the line," said Long. "They close very tight on the net, and that seemed to work pretty well. And we took returns a little earlier."
"We stayed positive, we really didn't get down," said Anundsen. "We just felt we could be in it at any time."
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