By Greg Chandler

For the first time in more than two decades, the Hope College men's tennis team is headed to the NCAA Division III national tournament.

The Flying Dutchmen clinched their first national tournament bid since 1997 on Friday, winning the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association tournament championship with a 5-1 victory over archrival Calvin College at Strikwerda Tennis Stadium in Grand Rapids.

Hope's win avenged a 5-4 loss to the Knights in their regular-season meeting on April 4. It also marked the first MIAA tournament title for the Flying Dutchmen since the current team tournament format was adopted by the MIAA in 2007.

Hope, which finished third in the MIAA in the regular season, improved to 10-10 on the season with the victory, while Calvin, the second-place team in the league standings, slipped to 17-4. Calvin was the tournament's top seed, while the Flying Dutchmen were seeded second.

Hope's doubles teams set the tone for the championship match from the outset, sweeping all three flights.

The team of junior Michael Kiley of Muskegon, Michigan (Mona Shores HS) and freshman Carter Smiley of Minnetonka, Minnesota (Minnetonka HS) opened the scoring for the Flying Dutchmen at second doubles, defeating Calvin's Rodrigo Guzman and David Brown, 8-3.

Then at third doubles, Hope's team of juniors Justin Folkert of Hamilton, Michigan (Hamilton HS) and Timothy Roe of Bakersfield, California (Frontier HS) downed Jose Larrea and Max Stallings, 8-5.

But the backbreaker may have been the match at first doubles, where junior Mark VanderStoep of Holland, Michigan (West Ottawa HS) and sophomore Danny Kroeze, also of Holland (Holland Christian HS), won a 9-7 tiebreaker to defeat Calvin's Matt Van Winkle and Jason Wolters, 9-8.

VanderStoep and Roe then sealed Hope's victory with straight-set wins in singles. VanderStoep, a first team All-MIAA selection, had no problem disposing of Larrea, 6-0, 6-1 at second singles. Meanwhile, Roe swept past Brown 6-3, 6-0 at fourth singles for the clinching point.

"When we show up for matches, our main goal is to bring our best tennis forward. I felt we didn't bring our best potential the first time (we played Calvin)," head coach Bob Cawood said. "Today, we came. We showed up, from start to finish. We didn't let up. We just kept going, staying aggressive and trusting each other."

The NCAA Tournament field will be announced on Monday.

The NCAA bid is Hope's third as a team. In 1996, the Flying Dutchmen defeated Wooster (Ohio) by default in a first-round match before losing to DePauw (Indiana) in the second round, 7-1. A year later, Hope returned to the national tournament, but again fell to DePauw, 4-2.