Surprise in Arizona: CSU captures Division II National Championship in men’s tennis

The men’s tennis team at Columbus State University won its first Division II NCAA National Championship Saturday in Surprise, Ariz., beating top-ranked Barry University of Miami 5-4.

It is CSU’s eighth team NCAA title, and the first since the baseball team captured the championship in 2002.

“We dreamed of this situation,” Coach Evan Isaacs said. “This was one of my goals 18 years ago to bring a national championship to Columbus.”

Isaacs, 45, said he thought about the late Herbert Green, who hired him for the job when he was just 27-years-old. “He must have seen something in me a long time ago,” he said. “It was pretty cool.”

Alvaro Regalado and Zach Whaanga set the tone with a dominating 8-3 victory in first doubles.

After Barry tied the match with a win in second doubles, the third doubles team of Jorge Vargas and Arnold Kokulewski won to give the Cougars the advantage heading into singles play.

Singles got off to a slow start, with both Avram and Vargas losing their matches.

With the Bucs in the lead for the first time all day, Kokulewski pulled out a two-set win to even things up again.

But Whaanga lost in three sets and the Cougars were on the verge of defeat.

Fortunately, their fate was in the hands of K.P. Pannu, the Peach Belt Conference Player of the Year, and Alvaro Regalado, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Rookie of the Year.

Regalado tied things up with a 6-7, 6-2, 6-1 win, and seconds later Pannu won by the exact same score, giving the Cougars its 16th consecutive victory and the national championship.

The high desert temperatures may have favored CSU Cougars, the stronger team, the coach said. “We worked very hard all year, physically trying to be as strong and fast as we could,” he said. “We were just a little bit more physically strong than the other team today.”

Isaacs, 45, said the national championship is something a lot of people didn’t think they could accomplish but the team kept working. “We just kept working hard and building the program up and we were able to do something amazing today,” he said.

With a national championship, Isaacs hopes the honor will help broaden the school’s reach and make the university a viable option for young student athletes.

Isaacs called himself a patient man, and said he was looking forward to next season. “We try to do our best every year and you know if it didn’t happen, we just try again,” he said. “Even next year, we will try to repeat and do it again,” he said.

The Cougars finished the season 28-3.

This story was originally published May 12, 2018 at 6:21 PM with the headline "Surprise in Arizona: CSU captures Division II National Championship in men’s tennis."