Awesome in Arizona: Men's Tennis Crowned National Champions

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- The Buccaneers seem to be right at home here.

"We like this place," Barry University men's tennis coach George Samuel said.

No. 2 Barry beat No. 1 Hawai'i Pacific, 5-3, to win the NCAA Division II National Championship Saturday at Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex. It marked the second time in three years the Buccaneers (26-0) won it all in Surprise. 

"This is a special place for me," Barry senior Fabian Groetsch said.

It is the Buccaneers' third national title in program history, and the school's 14th overall. It also marks the second time in school history a men's tennis team has gone unbeaten to win the national championship, matching the 2013 team, which went 29-0 and captured the title in Surprise. Barry's men's tennis is the only program in school history to put together a perfect season.

Barry has won eight straight matches in Surprise.

"This is history here," said Samuel, who collected his third national championship in a 24-year tenure with the men's program.

From the energy of Austin Cruz and Ajdin Tahirovic cheering their teammates on all week long, to the spirit of Fabian Pronnet, who watched from back home in Germany and was in communication with Samuel, the Bucs were loud and proud in Surprise. It started with a big win at the top of the doubles lineup. 

Barry's No. 2-ranked doubles team of Ahmed Triki and Groetsch beat No. 1 Thibaud Berland and Yann Renault, 8-4, at the No. 1 position. The Bucs' No. 3 duo of Franco Echenique and Renato Lombardi had seven match points before putting away Clemens Graute and Jaume Martinez-Vich, 8-6. The Sharks claimed a point at No. 2 doubles when Maik Burlage and Marko Lenz defeated Dominik Haider andKevin Sielmann, 8-4.

Lombardi, a cerebral player who displayed great poise in Surprise, defeated Graute, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 6 singles. A freshman who joined the team in January, Haider played with great confidence in his 6-0, 6-2 victory over Jakub Hadrava at No. 5. After the Sharks (24-1) won at No. 4 and No. 2 singles to trim Barry's lead to 4-3, two matches were left to decide the title.

Third-ranked Triki bounced back after dropping the first set, 6-2, to win a second-set tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-1), extending his No. 1 singles match with second-ranked Marko Lenz. Ranked in the top 400 in the world, Lenz led 5-3 (15-30) in the third set when the Bucs clinched the championship. Triki finished the season with a 15-0 record, including eight wins against nationally-ranked opponents. He is the first player in school history to win at least 15 matches without a loss. 

Barry's Nico Dreer pulled out a third-set comeback to beat 15th-ranked Martinez-Vich, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5, at No. 3 to wrap up the title. Dreer had match point in the second set, but Martinez-Vich rattled off five straight games, sending the match to a third set. Dreer trailed 5-2 in the final set, but echoed his cramping opponent by winning five straight games of his own. He sealed the title with an ace, and his teammates rushed his court to celebrate.

Bucs assistant coach Fred Bonal has witnessed a lot of tennis in his life, and admitted he was cautious about Dreer's match after Martinez-Vich started cramping, suggesting nothing was a guarantee.

"He can crack it," Bonal said of the Sharks gutty All-American. "I have seen it where it goes the other way (after an injury). You just never know."

But Dreer recovered after admittedly getting tight in the second set when he had a chance to put the match away, pulling off his second straight huge comeback on back-to-back days at the NCAA Championships.

Groetsch and Triki finished the season with a 23-1 record, and likely will be the No. 1 doubles team in the country in the final rankings. That will mark the second time in Groetsch's career he will finish the season as part of the nation's top-ranked doubles team.

"Yeah, but I don't care about that," said Groetsch, who went out a champion for the second time in his final match with Barry. "All I care about is the national championship."

On another special Saturday in Surprise, he and the Buccaneers had a trophy to call their own.