Courtesy of Boise State Athletics – 

LAS VEGAS – Boise State men’s tennis defeated San Diego State 4-1 Friday night in Las Vegas to win back-to-back Mountain West Tournament championships. The Broncos have now won six MW tournaments since joining the league for the 2012 campaign and 18 conference tournament titles all-time.

Boise State won the doubles point 2-0 to take an early lead in the match. Sam Sippel and Jan Lucca Marquardt recorded the first win on court one by a 6-3 score. Caden Moortgat and Jett Middleton were not far behind, also winning their contest by a 6-3 score to clinch the team point.

Boise State slowly pulled away after the teams split the six opening sets in singles. James Van Herzeele started the ball rolling with a dominating straight-set 6-2, 6-1 victory at No. 3 singles to put the Blue and Orange up 2-0.

After San Diego State cut its deficit to 2-1, Boise State closed it out quickly with two victories just minutes apart. Sippel spotted Boise State a 3-1 advantage when he won a hard-fought match on court one with a second set tiebreaker, 6-4, 7-6(3).

Marquardt closed it out with a tightly contested match at No. 4 singles, where he defeated SDSU’s Chikaya Sato 7-6(5), 7-5 to hand Boise State the victory and championship.

Notables

  • This is Boise State’s 18th conference tournament title all-time and its 22nd combined (regular season and tournament) championship.
  • The Broncos swept the MW championships this year, winning tonight’s tournament title and last Saturday’s regular-season championship, which they shared with Utah State.
  • Boise State is 6-1 all-time in MW Championship matches.
  • Boise State improved to 20-10 overall, the program’s 19th 20-plus win season since 1982.
  • The Broncos won the MW’s automatic berth into next week’s NCAA Championship, which will be Boise State’s 20th appearance in the championship tournament in history.
  • In his two years at the helm of the Broncos, head coach Luke Shields has recorded back-to-back 20-plus win seasons, one MW Regular-Season Championship, two MW Tournament Championships, and two NCAA Tournament appearances.
  • Sippel and Marquardt won their second straight doubles match at the MW Championship and improved to 8-2 overall at the top position.
  • Moortgat and Middleton won their sixth consecutive match at No. 2 doubles and improved their overall record to 7-2.
  • Idriss Haddouch and Jip van Assendelft trailed 5-2 in their No. 3 doubles match before battling back to tie their score at 5-5 before it was abandoned.  
  • Van Herzeele won his 22nd singles match of the year, improving his record to 22-10 overall and 16-5 in team duals.
  • Sippel improved to 18-16 overall in singles and 11-10 at the No. 1 position.
  • Marquardt won his fifth consecutive singles match, improving to 17-13 overall and 10-6 in team duals.  

What’s Next

On Monday, the Broncos will find out where they are headed for the NCAA National Championship at 4 p.m. MT.  

Results

Mountain West Championship, Final
No. 57 Boise State (20-10) vs. San Diego State (16-7)
Doubles (Order of finish: 1,2)

  1. Sam Sippel/Jan Lucca Marquardt (BSU) def. Johannes Seeman/Eugenio Gonzalez (SDSU) 6-3
  2. Caden Moortgat/Jett Middleton (BSU) def. Robin Parts/Alexander Mandma (SDSU) 6-3
  3. Idriss Haddouch/Jip van Assendelft (BSU) vs. Bora Sengul/Chikaya Sato (SDSU) 5-5 DNF

Singles (Order of finish: 3,5,1,4)

  1. Sam Sippel (BSU) def. Johannes Seeman (SDSU) 6-4, 7-6(3)
  2. Jip van Assendelft (BSU) vs. Bora Sengul (SDSU) 5-7, 6-1, 1-4 DNF
  3. James Van Herzeele (BSU) def. Eugenio Gonzalez (SDSU) 6-2, 6-1
  4. Jan Lucca Marquardt (BSU) def. Chikaya Sato (SDSU)
  5. Robin Parts (SDSU) def. Idriss Haddouch (BSU) 6-1, 7-6(5)
  6. John Chin (BSU) vs. Alexander Mandma (SDSU) 2-6, 6-1, 5-4 DNF