MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee's Andreas Siljestrom and Marco Born, the third-ranked doubles team in the nation, won a pair of matches Monday to earn the tournament title at the ITA Southeast Championships in Lexington, Ky. With the victory the Blue Raider duo automatically qualifies for the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, November 2-5, in Columbus, Ohio.
Siljestrom-Born, the top seed in the Southeast Championships, defeated Tennessee's Bobby Cameron and Kaden Hensel, 8-4, in the semifinals before taking out Alabama's Dan Buikema and Mathieu Thibaudeau, 8-6, in the finals Monday. The Middle Tennessee duo swept through six matches en route to the regional title and the automatic berth into the national indoor tournament.
"I am extremely proud of the way the guys played [Monday] and throughout the tournament," head coach Dale Short said. "It might be the best they've ever played. I didn't think they could [win the tournament] because of the pressure. It was the only way they could qualify for the national indoors.
"They really rose to the occasion and played awesome doubles, moving and attacking. Plus with Andreas and his ankle injury from earlier in the tournament, that made it that much more difficult."
The ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships is the second leg of the collegiate grand slam this year. Siljestrom-Born made the finals of the national indoors in 2005 before falling to a duo from Ohio State.
The ITA Southeast Championships serve as the qualifying event for the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships set for November 2-5 in Columbus, Ohio. Teams in the field include Alabama, Auburn, Austin Peay, Bethune-Cookman, Birmingham Southern, Eastern Kentucky, Florida, Florida A&M, Florida Atlantic, Georgia, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Kentucky, Louisiana State, Memphis, Miami (FL), Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Morehead State, Murray State, North Florida, South Florida, Stetson, Tennessee, Chattanooga and Vanderbilt.
Full results from the tournament may be found at http://www.ukathletics.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=44&url_article_id=18552&change_well_id=2.
ITA SOUTHEAST CHAMPIONSHIPS
Doubles - Semifinals
(3) Marco Born-Andreas Siljestrom (MT) def. Bobby Cameron-Kaden Hensel (Tennessee), 8-4
Doubles - Finals
(3) Marco Born-Andreas Siljestrom (MT) def. Dan Buikema-Mathieu Thibadeau (Alabama), 8-6
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