The Hope College men's tennis team secured a thrilling 4-3 victory over Calvin University in the MIAA Tournament semifinals on Thursday evening at DeWitt Tennis Center, with the decisive final two points coming in a marathon matches at No. 5 and No. 6 singles.

The second-seeded Flying Dutchmen (9-12 overall) advanced to the MIAA Tournament championship for the sixth time in the last nine years, facing top-seeded Kalamazoo College on the road on Saturday, May 3, at 1 p.m.

The Orange and Blue found themselves in a battle from the start, dropping two of three doubles matches that enabled third-seeded Calvin to earn the first point of the match. 

in singles, Hope and Calvin split the top four flights, keeping the Knights in the lead at 3-2.

The Flying Dutchmen evened the match at No. 6 singles. Senior Austin Becksvoort (Holland, Michigan / Holland Christian HS) fought through three sets to claim a crucial win, setting the stage for the deciding match at No. 5 singles.

With everything on the line, freshman Karsten Patel (Birmingham, Michigan / Birmingham Seaholm) battled through a grueling three-set marathon, overcoming a tough second set to clinch the victory in a third-set tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-3).

"It was pretty epic to watch Austin and Karsten finish the job for us," head coach Austin Hunt said. "It was a very, very long and intense match. It was great to let Austin as a senior go about his business and take care of it. Then we got to focus in on our very young and talented freshman Karsten. We told Karsten it's even about strategy at this point. It's 'Are you going to dig deep enough to get it done? He proved he has enough guts to do it. It was awesome to see him get us over the hump." 

Doubles

1D: Rodrigo Alipio/Mario Neto (CAL) def. Ned Curley/Austin Becksvoort (HPE), 6-2

2D: Alec Maynard/Cooper Nugent (HPE) vs. Ryan Broek/Felipe Sartori (CAL), 4-3, unfinished

3D: Caleb Bartels/Tanner Warners (CAL) def. Paul Schneider/Elliot Dozeman (HPE), 6-2

Singles

1S: Rodrigo Alipio (CAL) def. Cooper Nugent (HPE), 6-4, 7-5

2S: Ned Curley (HPE) def. Caleb Bartels (CAL), 6-2, 6-3

3S: Felipe Sartori (CAL) def. Paul Schneider (HPE), 6-1, 6-3

4S: Rylan Doden (HPE) def. Ryan Broek (CAL), 6-3, 6-2

5S: Karsten Patel (HPE) def. Mario Neto (CAL), 6-2, 0-6, 7-6 (7-3)

6S: Austin Becksvoort (HPE) def. Corwin Kim (CAL) 7-6, 2-6, 6-3

Order of finish: 3, 4, 2, 1, 6, 5