ROME, Ga. – Coming off of the first regional doubles title in program history, the West Alabama men's tennis pair of Lucas Hammond and Marcel Hornung continued that run right into the ITA Cup this week in Georgia. After picking up a pair of impressive wins to reach the semifinals, the duo fell just short of the final in a back-and-forth battle on Saturday.

Going against the pair from Indianapolis, Hammond and Hornung came out strong winning the first set in a tiebreaker,7-6 (4). Then it looked like the second might be heading towards another tiebreaker before Indianapolis was able to turn a break into the second set win at 6-4. In the super tiebreaker of the third set, Hammond and Hornung came out strong winning four of the first five points. After moving out to the 6-3 lead, Indianapolis surged back winning five straight points to take the 8-6 lead. UWA kept fighting, pulling to within 8-7 and then 9-8 before Indianapolis converted match point at 10-8.

"The match was long and an extremely close three-set battle," head coach Jeff Beaman said. "The opponents were very experienced and mentally tough and we should learn from this experience."

The Indianapolis pair went on to win the national title against the same pair from West Florida that Hammond and Hornung defeated for the South title.