Posted: May 10, 2018

Falcons score first-ever points by NACC tennis program in NCAA Tournament

Team Stats

Concordia Wisconsin

Grinnell College

Score

Doubles

Rademacher, Nolan / Guendel, Brad (CUW)
def. Sam Stickels / M.Conlin-Brandenburg (GCM)

8-5

Ben Cobin / George Kaslow (GCM)
def. Raskin, Nathan / Kloda, Peter (CUW)

8-6

Zach Lane / Ishaan Tibrewal (GCM)
def. Binversie, Gabe / Schaffner, Ceejay (CUW)

8-5

Singles

Rademacher, Nolan (CUW)
def. Zach Lane (GCM)

7-6, 6-3

Sam Stickels (GCM)
def. Guendel, Brad (CUW)

FINAL - UNFINISHED

Ben Cobin (GCM)
def. Binversie, Gabe (CUW)

6-3, 6-2

M.Conlin-Brandenburg (GCM)
def. Schaffner, Ceejay (CUW)

FINAL - UNFINISHED

Ishaan Tibrewal (GCM)
def. Raskin, Nathan (CUW)

6-1, 6-1

Henry Johnson (GCM)
def. Kloda, Peter (CUW)

1-6, 6-3, 6-1

ST. PETER, Minn. – The final result ended Concordia Wisconsin's season, but the historic nature of the match will be remembered for some time. The Falcons became the first Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tennis program to score a point in the NCAA Tournament, as they fell 5-2 to Grinnell on Thursday morning.

THE BASICS
Final Score: Grinnell 5, Concordia Wisconsin 2
Location: Brown Outdoor Tennis Complex (St. Peter, Minn.)
Records: Grinnell 23-4, Concordia Wisconsin 15-12

QUOTING HEAD COACH STEVE ANSCHUTZ
"I am super proud of our guys and how they played! We made CUW and NACC history today and we had our chances to win the match, and our team has reached a new level of competition."

HOW IT HAPPENED
- Freshman Nolan Rademacher (Monument, Colo.) and senior Brad Guendel (Greendale, Wis.) combined to score the first point ever scored by a NACC tennis program in the NCAA Tournament. The doubles pairing defeated their opponents 8-5 at the No. 1 position.
- Grinnell took the other two doubles matches to own a 2-1 lead.
- The Pioneers pushed their advantage to 3-1 and 4-1 before Rademacher became the only singles player in NACC history to ever score a point. He defeated his opponent 7-6, 6-3 at the No. 1 position.
- Senior Ceejay Schaffner (Winona, Minn.) won the second set 6-2 during his singles match at the No. 4 position, but the overall result went unfinished. As well, junior Peter Kloda (Morton Grove, Ill.) took the second set 6-3 during his No. 6 singles match and the result was also unfinished.
- Concordia Wisconsin ends its season with a 15-12 overall record and won the NACC regular season and tournament for the second-straight season.

BEYOND THE RESULTS
- Guendel finishes his career ranked fifth all-time in program history with 54 singles victories and fourth with 59 doubles wins. In addition, Schaffner is seventh with 41 singles and 51 doubles victories.
- Previously, the closest tennis player to ever score a point in the NCAA Tournament was Concordia Wisconsin's Russell Johnson, who led 6-3, 3-2 during a No. 1 singles match in 2013 before it went unfinished because of Ohio Northern winning the fifth point.
- Grinnell is ranked 14th in the region and is 23-4 overall.