FINAL FOUR! Cougars Defeat Northwood to Earn NCAA Semifinal Berth

Altamonte Springs, Fla. -- Columbus State added more pages to its men's tennis history book on Thursday as it defeated Northwood (Mich.) University 5-1 in the NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Championship. The Cougars, making their first ever trip to the big dance, defeated West Virginia Wesleyan on Wednesday in the team's first match.

CSU (20-4) now moves on to face in-state foe Valdosta State in the semifinal round. The Blazers (21-1) are the top-ranked team in the country and defeated Abilene Christian 5-1 on Thursday to secure its spot in the semifinal. Barry University knocked off defending champ Armstrong Atlantic State 5-2 on Thursday and will face Concordia (New York), 5-1 winners over St. Edward's on Thursday, in the other semifinal. 

CSU found itself down 2-1 after the doubles competition on Thursday. Northwood's Peter Kazianschuetz and Frederic Schoelzel upset #12 Frank Suarez and Christophe Noblet at the number one spot by an 8-4 score. Olivier Simonet and Nemanja Djuric, however, emphatically defeated Michael Haas and Marcus Oliveira 8-2. The CSU duo of Filip Cojbasic/Daniel Stomberg made it 2-1 as they defeated the Timberwolves' duo of Max Dutois/Alexis Biarneix 8-5 to give CSU the 2-1 advantage.

Noblet was the first Cougar to close out his match in singles as he defeated Dutois 6-1, 6-1 to make it 3-1. Simonet then followed with the Cougars' fourth point, defeating Biarneix 6-1, 6-4. CSU then had two chances to close the match. Nemanja Djuric dropped his first set to Haas, but rebounded to quickly even the match with a 6-0 win in the second and was up 5-0 in the third before Daniel Stomberg's win stopped play. Stomberg defeated Julian Freese 6-3, 6-0 to close out the match and earn the win for CSU. The other two remaining matches were halted at that point.

Both semifinal matches will get underway at 1 p.m. on Friday. Click the live stats link at csucougars.com to follow the match progress.