Siljestrom-Born Falls in Semifinals

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Middle Tennessee's Andreas Siljestrom and Marco Born lost the first set after an early break and battled back after another early break in the second set before falling in a tiebreaker, dropping a 6-3, 7-6 (7), decision to Pepperdine's second-seeded Andre Begemann and Scott Doerner Sunday at the NCAA Doubles Championships in Stanford, Calif.

Siljestrom-Born, seeded 5-8 in the 32-team field and ranked sixth in the country, lost 6-3, 7-6 (7), to the third-ranked and second-seeded team in the nation.

Begemann-Doerner broke in the second game of the first set en route to a 3-0 lead and a 6-3 final score in the set.

The Pepperdine tandem broke early again in the second set, but Siljestrom-Born pulled even at 4-4 with their own break of serve. The momentum was short-lived, as Begemann-Doerner won four straight points in the next service game to take a 5-4 advantage, but the Blue Raiders broke again to pull even at 5-5.

The two teams went to a tiebreaker, where the Blue Raiders got an early mini-break and led 5-3 before Pepperdine won three straight points. The teams traded points before Born's overhead was wide, giving Begemann-Doerner a 9-7 triumph in the breaker and the match.

"The guys got off to a slow start and [Pepperdine] played very well for much of the match," head coach Dale Short said. "We battled back and had a chance to take it to a third set and just missed some easy chances in the tiebreaker.

"The guys really fought throughout the match against a very good team. They had a great tournament and a great year, but just fell a little short of their goal."

The Middle Tennessee duo fell just short of making the finals of the tournament, but the Middle Tennessee pair still made it further than any other players in school history.

Siljestrom-Born earned the school's 10th and 11th All-America honors after garnering one of the tournament's top eight seeds. They also reached the semifinals of the tourney, two rounds past any previous Blue Raider doubles pairing, and fell one match short of playing in the finals of all three collegiate grand slam events this academic year.

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