MASON, OHIO -- The top-seeded Baldwin-Wallace College men's tennis team defeated second-seeded and defending champion Ohio Northern University, 5-3, today (Saturday, May 5, 2012) in the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Championship Match at the Linder Family Tennis Center in Mason.  The victory advances the Yellow Jackets to their first-ever NCAA Division III National Tournament berth next week.

With the victory, the Yellow Jackets improved to a school-record 28-0 overall while ONU ends its season at 12-6 overall.

In the OAC Tournament, all matches are ended when the winning team reaches five team points regardless of the current progress of other matches still on court.   Each match will start with the three doubles matches and will continue with singles action until the winning five points are obtained.

This was B-W's seventh OAC Championship Match appearance and fourth OAC Tournament title but its first-ever NCAA berth.  The other OAC tourney titles came in 1992, 2004 and 2005 prior to when the OAC champ received an automatch berth in the national tourney. The Yellow Jackets also have won three regular season titles, including this season with a 9-0 regular season slate. The other two came in 2004 and 2005.  

B-W took a 2-1 lead after the doubles competition and won three singles matches to claim the win.

In doubles action, the number one duo of senior Alex Trzeciak (Avon Lake) and senior Alexandre Bourdiaux (Paris, FRANCE/ Lycee Saint Dominique) won 9-7 with a 7-2 tie-breaker and the No.3 tandem of freshman Kyle Patterson (Wooster/ Triway) and senior Taylor Long (Ashland/ Senior) won 8-6. With their win at No.1 doubles, Trzeciak and Bourdiaux are now 21-3 overall. The doubles win for Trzeciak was the 82nd of his career and he now has an 82-26 career mark and ranks third all-time in school history in doubles wins. The victory for Patterson and Long improved their mark to 13-4 this season. Long now has 83 career doubles wins to rank second all-time with an 83-24 career slate.

In singles play, Bourdiaux earned the third point at the number four singles as he won his match by scores of 6-4 and 6-3. Patterson won the fourth point at number three singles as he won 6-3 and 6-3. Junior No. 2 player Joe Horvath (North Royalton) won the decisive fifth point winning his singles match 6-3 and 6-2.

Trzeciak is 26-5 this season, Horvath is 27-2, Bourdiaux's win gives him a perfect 24-0 record this season. Other records include Patterson at 26-3, Kearney at 25-4 this season and 63-11 for his career (including 17-0 as a freshman at the University of Mount Union) and Beaton is 19-2.

In terms of career singles wins, Horvath is 72-8 overall to rank tied for sixth all-time.

The NCAA will announce its Division III Tournament pairings this Monday, May 7.

FOR MORE B-W Sports Information, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu. or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu Fans can access the latest B-W athletics information at www.bw.edu/athletics and we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter at http://twitter.com/bwathletics

FINAL SCORE: Baldwin-Wallace -- 5,  Ohio Northern -- 3

SINGLES RESULTS:
No.1: Joey Frank (ONU) defeated Alex Trzeciak (B-W), 6-4, 6-3
No.2: Joe Horvath (B-W) defeated Michael Kathary (ONU), 6-3, 6-2
No.3: Kyle Patterson (B-W) defeated Nick Kowalczyk (ONU), 6-3, 6-3
No.4: Alex Bourdiaux (B-W) defeated Josh Saunders (ONU), 6-4, 6-3
No.5: Alex Kearney (B-W) unfinished Andrew Korba (ONU), 6-3, 0-6, 4-1
No.6: Mike King (ONU) defeated Tyler Beaton (B-W), 6-4, 6-3

DOUBLES RESULTS:
No.1: Bourdiaux/ Trzeciak (B-W) defeated Frank/ Kowalczyk (ONU), 9-7 (7-2)
No.2: Kathary/ Korba (ONU) def. Horvath/Beaton (B-W), 8-5
No.3: Patterson/ Taylor Long (B-W) def. Saunders/ Prewitt (ONU), 8-6