Nemanja Radosevic, who closed out his season with a 12 match win streak, was one of six Saints that captured singles titles on their way to the UMAC tournament title on Saturday (File photo).
UMAC Men's Tournament results (doubles & singles)
The St. Scholastica men rode a perfect day in singles play to capture the 2008 UMAC postseason tournament on Saturday at the Baseline Tennis Club in Minneapolis.
Though losers of only one of 24 conference doubles matches to UMAC opponents during the regular season the Saints found themselves trailing Northwestern College following Friday night's doubles results as only the 1-doubles team of Scott Hawley (Eveleth, Minn./Eveleth-Gilbert HS) and Brendan Anderson (Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata HS) finished with a conference title. The No. 2 doubles pairing of Willl Ruckel and Ryan LaCoursiere (Thief River Falls, Minn./Lincoln HS) were runners up as was the 3-doubles tandem of Peter Sparby (North Oaks, Minn./Mounds View HS) and Brady Vidovic (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing HS).
So the drama was set up for singles play on Saturday with the favored Saints now trailing Northwestern by one point.
Taking all the fun out of that drama all day on Saturday were the six singles players on the courts for St. Scholastica as each individual rolled to individual titles.
So strong were the Saints -- all seeded at No. 1 within their flights -- that in the 2- thorugh 6-singles flights they failed to drop a single set, winning both their semifinal and final matches in straight sets.
The only three-setter was at No. 1 singles where Dillon Sterle (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing HS) dropped his first set 1-6 to Minn.-Morris' B.J. Flynn before rallying for 6-4, 1-0 (10-4) wins in the next two sets to claim the 1-singles crown.
Ruckel exacted some revenge at 5-singles losing a total of only two games in his semi and final.Hawley at 2-singles and Nemanja Radosevic (New Belgrade, Serbia/Duluth Central HS) at 3-singles each won their semifinal and final dropping only four games.
The other winners for the Saints were LaCoursiere at 4-singles and Alex Rogers (Rochester, Minn./Century HS) at 6-singles.
The victory puts a cap on a season in which the Saints --again -- finished a perfect 8-0 within the UMAC, and bounced back from a 2-6 start to the season to win 12 of their next 14 matches to finish with a 14-8 overall mark.
Their unblemished conference mark also stretched their regular season UMAC winning streak to an astounding 66 in a row.
