Mobile, AL - For the second straight season, the Patriots advance to the second round of the NAIA National Championship with their win over the Rams Tuesday morning. UC matched up with the host of the tournament, the University of Mobile, and were able to dominate them on their own courts, winning 4-0.
Doubles play got started the way Cumberlands was hoping as they claimed the first win with Mattis Le Montagner and Luis Montull making quick work of their matchup at the #3 spot. The tandem put together a flawless win to help the Patriots jump out in front and set the tone for the rest of the match, winning 6-0. The Rams then knotted things up at one apiece with a win of their own at #1, defeating Martin Muller and Hung-Ju Wu 6-3.
The deciding match was at the #2 spot where Martin Barbier and Eric Banoub had to fight for the win. They found themselves in the midst of a battle with Mobile's Nicolas Mougaillard and Santiago Diloreto with UC's dynamic duo coming out on top in the end. The two teams battled back-and-forth until Cumberlands' tandem became too much for their counterpart as UC secured the first point in the 7-5 win.
After securing the win in doubles, UC made sure not to mess around when singles play began with them grabbing a trio of wins to give them their 20th sweep of the year. Hung-Ju Wu was the first to finish when going solo, making it a 2-0 count in favor of Cumberlands. The native of Kaohsiung, Taiwan made easy work of his opponent in the #6 spot as he went on to win 6-2, 6-1 to to give Hung-Ju his 15th straight win in a row.
Martin Barbier was next to finish with him able to extend UC's lead and move them one win away from claiming the victory. Barbier played out of the #2 spot for the Patriots in this one, marking just the third time this season he has done so but it did not seem to bother him one bit. Martin's Mobile counterpart put up a fight in the first set with Barbier winning 6-4 before dominating in the second canto 6-1 to take the win.
Martin Muller finished off the sweep for UC as the #4, doing so with little trouble. The native of Austria has been on a roll of late, winning nine of his last 10 decisions with that strong play continuing in this one as he handled the opposition by a tally of 6-2, 6-3 to help UC advance to the next stage for the second time in as many years.
Despite three contests going unfinished, there were positives to draw from them for the Patriots as UC found themselves ahead in two of the three bouts. Luis Montull and Christian de la Fuente Nodado both won the first sets of their matches, giving Cumberlands confidence going forward. Nodado played out of the #3 spot and won his first stanza 7-6 (7-5) while Montull competed at #5 and was ahead 6-2, 4-1 before the match had been called.
With this win, Cumberlands is now 23-5 on the year while improving to 10-3 in neural site contests. UC will now turn their attention to the University of Xavier (La.) with the two teams set to face each other tomorrow in the second round of the tournament at 10:00 a.m. EST. The Patriots saw the Gold Rush earlier in the year with Xavier getting the better of that matchup, winning 4-0 during the Grizzly Open at Georgia Gwinnett. UC will look for a different result this time around as they look to advance to the quarterfinals.
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