{"id":237570,"date":"2026-04-19T03:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T03:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/237570\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T03:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T03:52:09","slug":"no-2-liberty-survives-no-3-jacksonville-4-1-advances-to-cusa-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/237570\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 2 Liberty Survives No. 3 Jacksonville 4-1, Advances to CUSA Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Liberty men’s tennis (14-9) secured a 4-1 victory over Jacksonville State (18-4) on Saturday in the semifinal round of the 2026 Conference USA Men’s Tennis Championship. Liberty advances to take on tournament host, No. 1 seed Middle Tennessee on Sunday at noon ET\/11 a.m. CT at the MTSU Outdoor Courts in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
\n\u00a0
\nThe Flames clinched the doubles point with wins at the courts one and two then captured three singles victories at the No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5 positions.
\nLiberty secured the doubles point with decisive wins on both completed courts. At No. 1 doubles, David Ekpenyong<\/a> and Benjamin Sparks<\/a> defeated Timo De Visser and David Krasner, 6-4. Shortly after, Rodrigo Santiago Arraez<\/a> and Guy Vorwerk<\/a> clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 victory over Marko Milosavljevic and Lucius Soller at No. 2 doubles.<\/p>\n

In singles action, Liberty extended its lead with Arraez dominating Aman Dahiya at No. 3 singles, 6-0, 6-1. The Gamecocks responded as Charlie Penman overcame Siwanat Auytayakul<\/a> on court one, 6-2, 7-6 (3), narrowing the margin. David Ekpenyong<\/a> secured a hard-fought 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over Timo De Visser at No. 5 singles to push Jax State to the brink up 3-1.<\/p>\n

Carl Roothman<\/a> delivered a comeback victory at No. 4 singles, defeating Marko Milosavljevic 3-6, 6-1, 7-5. With this victory, Liberty reached the necessary four points to claim the match. Liberty was threatening on each the remaining two courts.

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\nThoughts from Head Coach Derek Schwandt<\/a>

\n“I’m proud of our team and the fight and grit we brought to this match against a tough opponent. Thank You Father for loving us first, it’s an honor to fight for Liberty

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\nLiberty 4, Jacksonville State 1

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\nDoubles\u00a0

\nDavid Ekpenyong<\/a>\/Benjamin Sparks<\/a> (LU) def. Timo De Visser\/David Krasner (JSU) 6-4\u00a0

\nR Santiago Arraez\/Guy Vorwerk<\/a> (LU) def. Marko Milosavljevic\/Lucius Soller (JSU) 6-4\u00a0

\nZach Murphy\/Charlie Penman (JSU) vs. Ernst Gouws<\/a>\/Carl Roothman<\/a> (LU) 4-4 (unfinished)\u00a0

\nOrder of finish: 1, 2\u00a0

\nSingles\u00a0

\nCharlie Penman (JSU) def. Siwanat Auytayakul<\/a> (LU) 6-2, 7-6(3)\u00a0

\nR Santiago Arraez (LU) def. Aman Dahiya (JSU) 6-0, 6-1\u00a0

\nCarl Roothman<\/a> (LU) def. Marko Milosavljevic (JSU) 3-6, 6-1, 7-5\u00a0

\nDavid Ekpenyong<\/a> (LU) def. Timo De Visser (JSU) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3\u00a0

\nDavid Krasner (JSU) vs. Benjamin Sparks<\/a> (LU) 3-6, 6-2, 4-4 (unfinished)\u00a0

\nAlin Fatu (JSU) vs. Chase Robinson<\/a> (LU) 6-2, 0-6, 2-5 (unfinished)\u00a0

\nOrder of finish: 3, 1, 5, 4

\n\u00a0

\nFlames News & Notes

\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Liberty advances to the CUSA Championship title game for the third consecutive season. The Flames finished as runners-up to MTSU in both seasons, including a loss at MTSU in 2024.

\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Flames oust Jacksonville State in a conference championship for the fifth consecutive season, twice in the ASUN and twice in CUSA.

\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Liberty improves to a collective 70-58 (.547) singles record and a 35-21 (.625) doubles mark.

\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Roothman (11-10) extended his winning streak to five singles matches.

\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sparks and Ekpenyong improve to (11-6) improve to 6-4 in the No. 1 doubles position.

\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Arraez and Vorwerk boost their team-best doubles mark to 13-4.

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\nUp Next

\nNo. 2 Liberty will meet No. 1 Middle Tennessee in the CUSA Championship final for the third consecutive season on Sunday at noon ET\/11 a.m. CT from the MTSU outdoor Courts. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MURFREESBORO, Tenn.\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Liberty men’s tennis (14-9) secured a 4-1 victory over Jacksonville State (18-4) on Saturday in the semifinal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-237570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}