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DALLAS – Tim Ruetzel won a three-set battle at No. 6 singles as Tulane ended USF's four-year hold on the American Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Championship title with a 4-3 win against the Bulls in Sunday's final at Turpin Stadium.


 
The Green Wave dropped the doubles point, but took four of the six singles matches to win its first American Athletic Conference title. Tulane senior Constantin Schmitz, the Green Wave's No. 1 player who won his singles matches in both the semifinals and final, was chosen as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.
 
USF, which had not lost a match in the American Athletic Conference Championship since the league's inception, battled back from a 3-1 deficit Sunday to tie the match at 3-3 and force a winner-take-all matchup at No. 6 singles between Ruetzel and the Bulls' Sean Burnette.
 
Ruetzel took the first set 6-3, but Burnette hung tough in the second set, taking a 7-6 win after outscoring Ruetzel 7-5 in the tiebreaker. The deciding third set saw Ruetzel build an early lead only to see Burnette rally to tie at 5-5. But Ruetzel gained a key break to take a 6-5 lead and avoided a second tiebreaker by serving out for the win.
 
USF had forced the deciding match when Jakub Wojcik took the No. 5 singles match in straight sets and Peter Bertran won a three-set match against Tulane's Ewan Moore at No. 2 singles to make it 3-3.
 
Tulane had built an early lead after spotting the doubles point to the Bulls. Hamish Stewart evened the score at 1-1 with a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 3 singles for his third win of the tournamnet. Schmitz followed with a win at No. 1 in a battle of nationally ranked players as the 14th-ranked Schmitz topped No. 67 Alberto Barroso-Campus 6-4, 6-3.
 
Tulane's Luis Erlenbusch put the Green Wave ahead 3-1 with a 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 4 singles.
 
The title for Tulane is the Green Wave's first American Athletic Conference championship in men's tennis. Tulane will learn its NCAA Championship destination May 1. The Green Wave takes an 18-6 record into the NCAA tournament.
 
USF, which fell to 14-1 all-time in the American Athletic Conference Championship, ends its 2018 season with a 10-16 record. The fifth-seeded Bulls had defeated the No. 4 and No. 1 seeds in The American bracket before falling to the second-seeded Green Wave.
 
 
 
Tulane 4 ,USF 3
Records: Tulane (18-6), USF (10-16)
 

	SINGLES (order of finish: 3, 1, 4, 5, 2, 6)
1.	No. 14 Constantin Schmitz (Tulane) def. No. 67 Alberto Barroso-Campos (USF)	6-4, 6-3
2.	Peter Bertran (USF) def. No. 105 Ewan Moore (Tulane)	6-4, 3-6, 6-2
3.	Hamish Stewart (Tulane) def. Grayson Goldin (USF)	6-3, 6-3
4.	Luis Erlenbusch (Tulane) def. Pierre Luquet (USF)	6-1, 6-4
5.	Jakub Wojcik (USF) def. Tyler Schick (Tulane)	7-6 (5), 6-3
6.	Tim Ruetzel (Tulane) def. Sean Burnette (USF)	6-3, 7-6 (5), 7-5
	DOUBLES (order of finish: 2, 1)
1.	No. 52 Ewan Moore/Constantin Schmitz (Tulane) vs. No. 67 Alberto Barroso-Campos/Grayson Goldin (USF)	unfinished
2.	Sean Burnette/Peter Luquet (USF) def. Tyler Schick/Hamish Stewart (Tulane)	6-4
3.	Peter Bertran/Jakub Wojcik (USF) vs. Luis Erlenbusch/Tim Ruetzel (Tulane)	6-2

 
 
 
 
AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE MEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
April 19-22 | Dallas Texas
 

First Round | Thursday, April 19
Match 1: No. 8 Temple 4, No. 9 SMU 3
Match 2: No. 7 ECU 4, No. 10 UConn 0
Quarterfinals | Friday, April 20
Match 3: No. 1 Memphis 4, Temple 1
Match 4: No. 5 USF 4, No. 4 Wichita State 3
Match 5: No. 2 Tulane 4, ECU 1
Match 6: No. 3 UCF 4, No. 6 Tulsa 3
Semifinals | Saturday, April 21
Match 7: USF 4, Memphis 3
Match 8: Tulane 4, UCF 2
Final | Sunday, April 22
Match 9: Tulane 4, USF 3

 
Most Outstanding Player
Constantin Schmitz, Tulane