Box Score MIAMI GARDENS, Fla.- The Ave Maria University men's tennis team did exactly what it needed to do to earn the third seed in next week's Sun Conference Tournament, picking up a 5-2 victory over No. 15 St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens. AMU's 5-2 victory allowed the Gyrenes to claim the tiebreaker over both St. Thomas and Coastal Georgia, who also finished 3-3 in SUN play. The win also marked Ave Maria's third win of the season over a top 25 opponent.

Doubles play favored the Gyrenes, with the top two matches going to Ave Maria. AMU's top team of Luca Cirenza and Gustavo Cruz claimed a 6-4 victory at the top flight, but St. Thomas answered with a 6-2 win at the third flight. The match came down to a close contest at the second flight, but it was the Gyrene duo that emerged victorious. Gaston Erhardt and Alejandro Orihuela toppled their opposition by a score of 7-5, securing the doubles point for AMU. 

The Gyrenes then claimed four of the six doubles matches to lock up the 5-2 win in the regular season finale. AMU won each of the top three matches, led by a dominant 6-3, 6-2 win by Cruz at the top flight. The match at the second flight was the day's most dramatic, as Orihuela won his first set 6-2, lost the second set 6-4, then won a marathon third set in a tiebreaker that took 13 additional points to decide.

Ave Maria and St. Thomas both won matches by retirement, with AMU the beneficiary in the third flight and STU earning the point in the fourth flight. Ave Maria claimed their final point of the day in the fifth flight, where Bruno Duarte was responsible for Ave Maria's most dominant win of the day, a 6-0, 6-4 triumph. St. Thomas did claim the point at the sixth flight, which came long after the Gyrenes had already clinched the match.

After securing the third seed in the conference tournament, the Gyrenes will prepare for a run at the first conference title in program history. The road begins with a first round matchup against SCAD-Savannah, who placed sixth in the league with a 1-5 conference record. The winner of that match would face second-seeded Southeastern in the semifinals, which would be a rematch from the same round last season. The tournament is scheduled for next weekend in Brunswick, on the campus of the College of Coastal Georgia.