ETSU wins Sixth Straight SoCon Men’s Tennis Championship

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – No. 1 seed ETSU downed second-seeded Samford, 4-2, Saturday in the title match of the 2024 Southern Conference Men’s Tennis Championship at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for its sixth consecutive title.  

The Bucs have now reached the championship match in all nine tournaments since returning to the league in 2015, while Samford was making its fifth appearance in the finals – and its first since 2022 – when ETSU edged the Bulldogs, 4-3.
 
Redshirt-senior Dimitri Badra was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament after going 2-0 at No. 1 singles and 3-0 at No. 2 doubles over the three-day event.

Samford’s first-team all-conference doubles tandem of Maxwell Giddens and Sandeep Mohandoss gave the Bulldogs an early edge by defeating the Bucs’ Milledge Cossu and Francisco Lamas, 6-1, at No. 1 doubles, but ETSU‘s four-time SoCon Player of the Year, Dimitri Badra, paired with teammate Adam Nagoudi at the No. 2 doubles flight and came away with a 6-2 win over Samford’s Santiago Arredondo and J.B. Pickard, while the Bucs’ Pedro Cressoni and Alberto Garcia clinched the doubles point for the Bucs for the third time in the tournament with a 6-4 win over Samford’s Darcy Nicholls and Will Gray at No. 3.

In singles play, Samford’s Mohandoss got the Bulldogs on the board first with his 6-4, 6-3, win over Cossu at No. 2, with ETSU’s Lucas Britez regaining a 2-1 edge for the Bucs with his hard-fought, 6-3, 6-4, win over Arredondo at No. 6. Just moments later, ETSU’s Peter Kalocsai rallied for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 decision over Samford’s Nicholls at the No. 3 spot to boost the Bucs’ advantage to 3-1.

Badra then clinched the championship by outlasting the Bulldogs’ Maxwell Giddens, 6-0, 3-6, 6-0 at the No. 1 slot, with Samford’s Maksim Bogdanovich nearly simultaneously defeating Pedro Cressoni, 6-3, 6-4, to set the final score.
 
Samford’s J.B. Pickard was leading Francisco Lamas, 2-6, 7-5, 2-1, at No. 5 when the match was abandoned.
 
Samford, which finished second during the regular season, finished its season with a 15-8 overall record. The Bulldogs were in the title match for the second time in three years and were seeking their first tournament title since 2013.
 
Kalocsai won the Pinnacle Award as the student-athlete with the highest GPA on the championship-winning team.

The Bucs, who earned the SoCon’s automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships, will learn their postseason opponent on Monday, April 29, with an announcement on NCAA.com at 6 p.m.

Singles competition
1. Dimitri Badra (ETSU) def. Maxwell Giddens (SAM) 6-0, 3-6, 6-0  
2. Sandeep Mohandoss (SAM) def. Milledge Cossu (ETSU) 6-4, 6-3
3. Peter Kalocsai (ETSU) def. Darcy Nicholls (SAM) 3-6, 6-3, 6-0
4. Maksim Bogdanovich (SAM) def. Pedro Cressoni (ETSU) 6-3, 6-4
5. Francisco Lamas (ETSU) vs. J.B. Pickard (SAM) unfinished
6. Lucas Britez (ETSU) def. Santiago Arredondo (SAM) 6-3, 6-4

Doubles competition
1. Maxwell Giddens/Sandeep Mohandoss (SAM) def. Milledge Cossu/Francisco Lamas (ETSU) 6-1
2. Dimitri Badra/Adam Nagoudi (ETSU) def. Santiago Arredondo/J.B. Pickard (SAM) 6-2
3. Pedro Cressoni/Alberto Garcia (ETSU) def. Darcy Nicholls/Will Gray (SAM) 6-4
 
Order of finish: Doubles (1, 2, 3); Singles (2, 6, 3, 1, 4)


2024 SoCon Men’s Tennis Championship
Chattanooga, Tenn. – Champions Club
Thursday, April 18
Match 1: No. 1 ETSU 4,  No. 8 UNCG 0
Match 2: No. 5 Chattanooga 4, No. 4 Mercer 0
Match 3: No. 3 Furman 4,  No. 6 Wofford 2
Match 4: No. 2 Samford 4, No. 7 The Citadel 1
 
Friday, April 19
Match 5: No. 1 ETSU 4, No. 5 Chattanooga 0
Match 6: No. 2 Samford 4, No. 3 Furman 2
 
Saturday, April 20
Match 7: No. 1 ETSU 4, No. 2 Samford 2