Chicago, Ill. - The number one seed Illinois Tech men's tennis team opened NACC postseason play Friday night at the XS Tennis Center with a semi-final match against number four seed St. Norbert College, which had defeated Wisconsin Lutheran earlier in the week to advance to the second round. The Green Knights season would come to a close however, as the Scarlet Hawks swept a hard-fought doubles play round 3-0 en route to a 5-0 match victory. The Scarlet Hawks improved to 11-9 on the season. The Green Knights finish their 2024 campaign at 10-12.

The Scarlet Hawks advance to the NACC Men's Tennis Championship on Sunday afternoon, where they will square off against number two seed MSOE, who defeated Concordia Wisconsin 5-2 in their semi-final match. The Raiders ended the Hawks season last year in the championship match, so the Hawks will be looking to return the favor.  

Doubles Play (Illinois Tech 3 - St. Norbert 0)
Although the Scarlet Hawks swept doubles play, it was not without some fight from the Green Knights. The Hawks number two pairing of Jordan Lauer and Eduardo Lopez was a new combination forced into action when Lauer's normal doubles partner, Avneet Singh, was unavailable due to injury. The new tandem had a successful postseason debut however, as they were the first to the double finish line with an 8-1 victory over St. Norbert's Anthony Michels and David Vandenberg. The Hawks number one doubles team of Davis Housman and Alann Torres were the next to complete their match, fending off a strong effort from the Green Knights' Brett Daniels and Jackson Harpt for an 8-5 victory. In the final double match to complete, the Scarlet Hawks number three tandem of Nabil Fawaz and Pol Dueso Guell fought off a determined effort from St. Norbert's Josh Brown and Own McDonough before eventually closing out their match 8-6, giving Illinois Tech the 3-0 lead they were looking for heading into singles competition.

Singles Play (Illinois Tech 2 - St. Norbert 0)
Only needing two singles match victories to clinch the overall match, Housman wasted no time getting a jump on things for the Scarlet Hawks, winning his number two singles match against Harpt 6-1, 6-0. One singles match victory away from the clinch, it was Lauer's 6-2, 6-0 number six singles victory over St. Norbert's Brian Coulter that secured the overall match victory for the Scarlet Hawks. Had the Scarlet Hawks needed help from the other singles matches to complete the victory, the team would have been in great shape, as they were leading all unfinished singles matches when play was halted after Illinois Tech secured the match decision.

Up Next
The Scarlet Hawks will take on #2 seed Milwaukee School of Engineering on Sunday at 1:00 PM in Kohler, Wisconsin for the NACC Men's Tennis Championship, a rematch of last year's championship match in which MSOE ended the Hawks' 2023 season. The winner in Sunday's match will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championships. The Scarlet Hawks defeated the Raiders 8-1 back on March 24th during the regular season.