Indian Wells, CA- After winning the last two regular season championships and falling in the finals last year, Arizona Christian Men's Tennis claimed their first GSAC Tournament Championship on Friday beating Westmont 5-1.  Junior Scott Wheeler won the clinching match for the Firestorm.

In a rematch of the 2017 tournament final, the Firestorm (18-6) and the Warriors (8-9) saw the same results after doubles with ACU ahead 2-1. 

On Friday, the Firestorm won the first two matches.  Senior Enzo Douillac and Sophomore Jesse Miritello won 8-3 on court one.  Juniors Alberto Lapiedra and Daniel Superlano held on for the 8-6 win over the Westmont duo of Luke Whalen and John Joens.  The Warriors claimed the win on court three in 8-4 fashion.

Unlike last year's singles action, Arizona Christian took care of business when they moved to solo play. 

The Firestorm won five of the six first sets.  Lapiedra rolled through both of his sets on court two winning 6-2 and 6-1 to give ACU a 3-1 cushion. 

The Warriors hung around by winning or holding leads in the second sets including on the first and fifth courts. 

But Arizona Christian pulled off big comebacks for the victory.  Douillac won 6-2 in his first set but was down 4-1 to WC's Whalen before storming back and winning 6-4 in the second set to push Arizona Christian up 4-1.  On court five, Wheeler held on for a 7-5 first set win.  However, he was in the hole 4-0 in second set before he charged back as well and won the final six games for the 6-4 win that locked up the Firestorm championship.

The last three matches were recorded as unfinished.

Due to only having four GSAC schools that played men's tennis in 2018, the Firestorm do not receive an automatic bid to the NAIA National tournament (six schools needed for automatic bid).  However, as the number 11 team in the country Arizona Christian will not have a problem qualifying for at-large berth.  Westmont, number 16 in the NAIA, should qualify as well.

Congratulations Firestorm!