Liberty Knocks Off Gators

Posted: Oct. 4, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.

Liberty sophomores Tristan Hoyle and Matthew Drongesen had one objective in the third round of Wednesday's Division I Sunrise Region semifinal at Green Valley.

Their job was to stave off the Gators' Matthew Chen and Isaac Wellish in the final match. In doing so, the Patriots would punch their ticket to the team final.

"We knew going into the final game we had a good chance to break their serve," Hoyle said. "We were up close within the past couple of games, but we figured if we stepped it up and kept it away from their better player, we would have a good shot at it."

The duo did exactly that, outlasting Chen and Wellish 6-4 in the deciding match to secure Liberty's 10-8 victory and a spot in the Sunrise final against Coronado at 8 a.m. Saturday at Darling Tennis Center.

"We're happy with the win," said Liberty coach Kih Gourrier, whose team reached its first region final. "I knew it would be a close match; 10-8, 11-7, it didn't really matter as long as we came out with the win."

Hoyle and Drongesen went 3-0, including a 7-6 victory decided on the tiebreaker against Green Valley's Jake Johnson and John John. After splitting six matches in the first round, Liberty (10-2) grabbed four points in the second round to take a 7-5 lead.

"We know we had some important matches that we knew we had to take care of today to keep us on top," Hoyle said. "I figured right off the bat that we were going to have to go 3-0 in doubles for us to pull it off."

Liberty's Dylan Ihmels and Chitnarong Sopat each went 3-0 in singles.

The doubles teams of Chen and Wellish, Johnson and John, and Parker Phelps and Amar Shah each went 2-1 for the Gators (12-1).

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Liberty Knocks Off Gators