MONTGOMERY, Ala. – After notching two impressive wins on Saturday to reach the SSAC Championship, the Belhaven men's tennis team gave second-ranked Auburn-Montgomery everything they could handle in the finals. The Blazers took one of the three doubles matches, but they were swept in singles play, falling to the Warhawks 5-1 in the title match.

Only two days removed from one of the biggest wins in program history—over No. 7 William Carey—the Blazers (15-4) knew that they would have to play their best tennis against an even tougher opponent. The Warhawks entered the match at 17-3 and had yet to lose a game to an NAIA opponent all season.

Belhaven and AUM had met in Montgomery during early March, where the Warhawks prevailed 9-0.

On Monday, Auburn-Montgomery was facing a much different Blazers' squad. Belhaven had won seven matches in a row, including a handful of wins against the NAIA Top 25. The Blazers were also appearing in their first SSAC championship since joining the league three years ago.

The third-ranked doubles team in the country Tim Hewitt and Bence Toth rolled through the Blazers first doubles team, 8-1. It was a similar result at third doubles, where the top-ranked singles player in the country—Nicholas Pinones-Haltenhoff—teamed up with Miguel Grifol to bounce the Blazers 8-1.

The second doubles match was a different story as Jefferson Nino and David Mejia continue to roll through their competition. Nino and Mejia were on point from beginning to end, easily defeating Othmane Lalami and Josh Reason 8-2 to give the Blazers their first point of the match.

Lalami responded after a loss in doubles to defeat Andres Yepez 6-3, 6-0 at sixth singles to make the match 3-1 in the Warhawks' favor. Zinelabidine Jouini also won in straight sets at fifth singles.

AUM's Toth provided the fifth and final point of the match by defeating Daniel Prado at third singles 6-3, 6-0.

The other three matches were all extremely competitive, but were unfinished due to the end result being declared.

Auburn-Montgomery claims its ninth consecutive SSAC title in men's tennis and secured an automatic berth to the NAIA National Championships beginning in two weeks. Belhaven will make an appearance in the tournament as well with their showing in the conference championships.

Seeding for the NAIA Championships will be announced next week.
 
Results:

Singles
1. #1 N Pinones-Haltenhoff (AUM) vs. Nikita Lisov (BU) 6-3, 4-0, unfinished
2. #8 Tim Hewitt (AUM) vs. #32 Jefferson Nino (BU) 6-2, 4-2, unfinished
3. Bence Toth (AUM) def. Daniel Prado (BU) 6-3, 6-0
4. Miguel Grifol (AUM) vs. David Mejia (BU) 6-4, 2-1, unfinished
5. Zinelabidine Jouini (AUM) def. Enrico Patriarca (BU) 6-2, 6-2
6. Othmane Lalami (AUM) def. Andres Yepez (BU) 6-3, 6-0

Doubles
1. #3 Tim Hewitt/Bence Toth (AUM) def. Nikita Lisov/Andres Yepez (BU) 8-1
2. Jefferson Nino/David Mejia (BU) def. Othmane Lalami/Josh Reason (AUM) 8-2
3. N Pinones-Haltenhoff/Miguel Grifol (AUM) def. Daniel Prado/Enrico Patriarca (BU) 8-1