CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- Tulane claimed the championship of the 48th annual H-E-B Tournament of Champions with a 4-1 victory against South Alabama on Saturday afternoon at the H-E-B Tennis Center on the campus of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
"It's a great feeling to be HEB Tournament champions," Tulane head coach Mark Booras said. "This has been a great collegiate event for 48 years. It's nice to be part of that tradition. This was a great college tennis match today."
The Green Wave (9-2) extended the season winning streak to four in a row with the victory against South Alabama (9-4). Dominik Koepfer once again provided the match-clinching victory with a win on court No. 1, while Sebastian Rey, Jao Chi-Shan and Ian Van Cott also earned wins.
"This was another collective team effort by our guys," Booras said. "Both teams were up and down throughout but our guys kept on fighting and believing and were able to come out with a win."
Koepfer defeated 94th-ranked Daniel Leitner 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 on court No. 1 to extend his season singles record to 11-0.
Rey, Chi-Shan and Van Cott each claimed their wins in straight sets after the Green Wave dropped the doubles point.
"After a tough loss in the doubles point, our guys rebounded well mentally to get a great start in singles," Booras said. "Jao, Ian and Sebastian jumped out for three quick points to get us ahead and Dominik continues to show us a lot of ability by coming back from a set down under all that team pressure to beat a ranked player."
Rey defeated Tuki Jacobs 6-1, 6-3 on court No. 2, Chi-Shan upended Ger Gruindelinghm 6-3, 6-2 on court No. 4 and Ian Van Cott edged Juan Troglia 6-3, 6-4 on court No. 6 to improve to 10-1 this spring.
