By: Jake Timm (@GBJakeT)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) – The Green Bay men's tennis team cruised to a 4-0 win over UIC in a Saturday morning semifinal at the Horizon League Championship at Purdue University.

The Phoenix received a bye to the semifinals after winning the regular season title and clinching the top seed in the tournament. The Flames got the No. 5 seed, and beat No. 4 seed Youngstown State in the first round on Friday for a chance to face Green Bay.

The Phoenix started strong, with the No. 2 doubles team of Howard Scott (Exeter, England) and Joey Leto (Downers Grove, Ill.) clinching its doubles match 6-1. Green Bay claimed the doubles point after an intense battle in the No. 1 doubles match ended with a tiebreaker and a 7-6 win for senior Michael Tenzer (Neuried, Germany) and freshman Florian Kraenzler (Puchheim, Germany).

“Having a freshman and senior at No. 1 who are very composed is great,” said head coach Mark Thomas. “Overall it was a good doubles point.”

The Phoenix turned it up a notch in singles play, taking a 2-0 match lead when Kraenzler dispatched his opponent 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4 singles.

“Flo is playing great, it seems like he gets better every match,” said Thomas. “We're looking for that to continue tomorrow in the final.”

Tenzer won in dominating fashion as well, winning 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 singles to put Green Bay up 3-0.

“Michael stepped up and closed his match out, which is what you expect from him,” said Thomas.

With match point on the line, junior Leopold Gomez Islinger (Weiden, Germany) closed out his second set by a score of 6-4 and sent the Phoenix to the conference finals.

“When it's a 3-0 match, we love having Leo's competitive spirit out there,” Thomas said. “He practices 110 percent, he plays 110 percent, and if the match is on the line, that's who we want.”

Green Bay advanced to the Horizon League Championship final for the fifth straight season with the win over UIC. The Phoenix won the 2015 conference regular season title by going 6-0 as a team in league play.

Green Bay will face the winner of the match between No. 2 Valparaiso and No. 3 Cleveland State on Sunday morning at Purdue. Weather forced matches indoors on Saturday, but it has not been determined yet if Sunday's championship match will be indoors or outdoors.

You can watch live coverage of the championship match on ESPN3 by clicking here. More information about the 2015 Horizon League Tennis Championships can be found online by clickng here.

 

 

(1)Green Bay 4 – (5)UIC 0

Singles

No. 1 Michael Tenzer (GB) def. Isaac  Lloveras (UIC) 6-3, 6-1

No. 2 Leopold Gomez Islinger (GB) def. Chris Cole (UIC) 6-2, 6-4

No. 3 Howard Scott vs. Carl Hedstrom (UIC) 7-6(7), 3-3 (DNF)

No. 4 Florian Kraenzler def. Mitch Granger (UIC) 6-2, 6-2

No. 5 Joshua Schramm vs. Maurizio Feoli (UIC) 6-1, 5-5 (DNF)

No. 6 Joey Leto vs. Max Cederkall (UIC) 6-1, 3-6, 2-3 (DNF)

Doubles

No. 1 Michael Tenzer/Florian Kraenzler (GB) def. Isaac  Lloveras/Carl Hedstrom (UIC) 7-6(3)

No. 2 Howard Scott/Joey Leto (GB) def. Maurizio Feoli / Eric Pontow (UIC) 6-1

No. 3 Chris Cole/Mitch Granger (UIC) def. Leopold Gomez Islinger/Michael Tebon (GB) 6-2

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