The No. 3 seed Mustangs’ season came to a close on Saturday, as they were eliminated from the Conference USA Championships in Orlando, Fla., by a 4-2 semifinal loss to No. 2 Rice University. SMU (16-11) advanced to the second round off a 4-2 victory over sixth-seed and host school University of Central Florida on Friday.
After entering the championships with a No. 53 national ranking, SMU tandem Darren Walsh and Adham el-Effendi were upset at the top doubles spot by UCF’s team of Blaze Schwartz and Johan Beigart. UCF went on to win the doubles point, but could not contain the Mustangs in singles competition, as SMU won four of the top five singles matches to win the match 4-2.
After losing the first set 6-2, sophomore Artem Baradach stormed back to win the next two 6-3, 6-0 over the Knights’ Johan Beigart for a crucial singles victory at the fourth singles position.
At the top singles spot, No. 65 Robin Fahgen defeated UCF’s Marc Rocafort 6-0, 6-3. The Mustangs only other loss came at the number two singles position, as the Knights’ Tarek Ben Soltane knocked off Chris Hooshyar 6-3, 6-4.
In Saturday’s loss SMU kept pace with the Owls, trading matches back and forth until No. 47, Bruno Rosa, defeated Fahgen 6-2, 6-4 in the top singles spot for the deciding point. Walsh and el-Effendi lost 8-6 in a match against Rice’s Christoph Müeller and Tobias Scheil, who entered the weekend ranked at No. 53 as well. Rice then clinched the doubles point with Bruno Rosa and Isamu Tachibana’s 9-8 (7-5) victory over SMU’s Fahgen and David Costa.
In singles play, SMU got victories at the four and five spots, with Baradach defeating Rice’s Sam Garforth-Bles 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 at No. 4, and Walsh beating Tachibana 6-1, 6-4 at No. 5.
The tournament, held at the UCF Tennis Complex, concluded Sunday with top seed Tulsa University beating the Rice 4-1. This marks the fourth straight year that Tulsa and Rice have met in the finals of the conference championship.