Tulane University
ITA All-American Championships
Koepfer to Play for National Championship Monday
Oct 11, 2015 | Men's Tennis
Singles Main Draw | All American Championships Homepage | Live Stream/Scoring
TULSA, Okla. - Tulane men's tennis senior Dominik Koepfer will play in his first national championship final on Monday after a 6-4, 6-4 victory in Sunday's semifinal match vs. California's Andre Goransson, a No. 9-16 seed in the tournament. Koepfer is now the first Green Wave player in program history to make the championship match at the All-American Championships.
"Great win for Dom today," Tulane assistant coach James McKie said. "We had a game plan, he stuck to it and executed at important times. I was very impressed how tough he was mentally. He served for the match at 5-3, got broken and managed to stay positive and break back for the win. He just needs to believe in his ability tomorrow, stay mentally strong and go out there and give it everything he's got."
The match went back-and-forth in the first set, until Koepfer earned a crucial break to garner a 5-4 lead, in which he then held serve to close out the set, 6-4. Then in the second set, Koepfer secured an early break to achieve a 3-1 lead. Serving out for the match up 5-3, Goransson broke back but Koepfer immediately fought back by earning another break to clinch at 6-4, booking his ticket into the final. In addition, the victory means Koepfer has now knocked off three top-40 nationally ranked players in the tournament.
Awaiting the No. 4 seeded Koepfer in the final will be Virginia's Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, the three-seed with a No. 8 preseason singles ranking. Koepfer and Kwiatkowski share quite the impressive history together over the past year, as they are the only duo in NCAA Division-I men's tennis to at least make the quarterfinal round at four of the past five major collegiate national championships, with three semis and one quarterfinal appearances apiece.
Like Koepfer, Kwiatkowski was a 2015 ITA All-American. The Virginia Cavalier also landed atop of the ITA singles poll at No. 1 this past February.
Monday's final is set for a 9 a.m. CT start time. As always, be sure to follow @GreenWaveMTenn on Twitter for live match updates.
"He cannot wait for the challenge," McKie added. "To play for a national championship tomorrow is pretty cool for him but also for Tulane."
Full Tulane All-American Championship Results
Singles Main Draw
Semifinal: No. 4 seeded Dominik Koepfer (TU) def. No. 9-16 seeded Andre Goransson (CAL), 6-4, 6-4
Players Mentioned
