No. 40 Liberty to Take on Bellarmine in ASUN Championship Quarterfinal Round
4/15/2021 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Live Scoring: No. 40 Liberty vs. Bellarmine
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The 40th-ranked Liberty men's tennis team will take on Bellarmine in a 2021 ASUN Men's Tennis Championship quarterfinal match on Saturday afternoon. Match time between the Flames (17-7, 6-0 ASUN) and Knights (4-19, 0-6 ASUN) is set for 2 p.m. at the Liberty Tennis Complex.
The Flames are the No. 1 seed in the ASUN North Division following an unblemished 6-0 season in ASUN regular season competition. The Knights are the No. 4 seed following an 0-6 regular season in league play. Liberty and Bellarmine met twice in the regular season, with the Flames earning two 7-0 sweeps.
Liberty swept Bellarmine 7-0 on the road, March 28, and bested the Knights 7-0 at home, last Saturday at the Liberty Tennis Complex. The Flames are 3-0 all-time against the Knights.
The winner of Saturday's match will move on to the ASUN Championship semifinals, hosted by North Florida at the UNF Tennis Complex in Jacksonville, Fla. If the Flames were to reach the semifinals, they would play against the lowest remaining ASUN South Division seed. The ASUN Men's Tennis Championship title match will be held the next day, April 24.
Flames News and Notes
• The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) announced new plans to reveal that it would publish both the ITA Computer Team Ranking Top 50 as well as the ITA Coaches Poll Top 50. In Wednesday's second reveal of both the computer rankings and coaches poll, Liberty checked in at No. 40 in the country in the computerized rankings and No. 48 in the coaches poll. The Flames are up three spots in the computer rankings and one spot in the coaches poll from last week.
• Liberty is one of four schools from the state of Virginia in the ITA Top-50. The Flames are joined by No. 5 Virginia, No. 29 Virginia Tech and No. 44 VCU.
• Muamba is currently ranked 90th in the nation in the Oracle/ITA Division I Men's Rankings.
• Liberty has established a new school record with 17 wins in 2021. The Flames earned the record-setting win with a 5-2 triumph over Charlotte at home, last Sunday. The previous record of 16 victories had been held for 31 years by the 1990 Liberty team.
• The Flames lead the conference with nine ASUN Player of the Week awards. The rest of the league has combined for only four total honors. Rafael Marques Da Silva is a four-time ASUN Player of the Week this season, followed by Nicaise Muamba with three honors. Josh Wilson and Deji Thomas-Smith have one award each.
• Muamba (16-5) and Marques Da Silva (16-6) lead the squad with 16 singles victories each. As a doubles unit, they are a team-best 13-5, this spring.
• Collectively, the Flames have a .626 winning percentage in singles (87-52) and a .610 doubles winning percentage (36-23).
• Liberty is 0-1 all-time in the ASUN Championship. As the No. 2 seed, the Flames fell to No. 3 seed North Florida by a 4-3 score in the 2019 ASUN semifinals. The 2020 ASUN Championship was not contested due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Of the Flames' current roster, Muamba, Wilson and Steve Mundt have experience competing at the ASUN Championship.
