SOUTHLAKE, Texas – Midwestern State won its first Lone Star Conference Tournament Championship since 2006 as the No. 24-ranked Mustangs beat No. 16 Abilene Christian 5-4 on Saturday afternoon at the Southlake Tennis Center.
 
The Mustangs (18-5) won their seventh straight match and snapped the Wildcats (14-15) four-year reign as LSC Tournament champions.
 
"This was a great win for our program," said MSU coach Scott Linn.  "I'm so proud of the way we responded to the challenge and did what we needed to do to win."
 
Once again the match came down the final match on the court, and Mustangs freshman Franko Siljeg at No. 5 came through.
 
After leading 2-1 after doubles, MSU had a 4-3 lead with Siljeg facing ACU's Alfredo Desiati.  After taking the first set 7-5, Siljeg was down 5-4 in the second before coming through with three straight games to win his point and the match 7-5.
 
"Franko did a great job of playing with the match on the line," Linn said.  "He lost one match point, but kept his composure to come back and win it."
 
The Mustangs won at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to open the match against the Wildcats.
 
Kyle Davidson and Austin Crawford to an 8-4 win at No. 2 against Borja Cortes and Jason Proctor, with Tomas Grejtak and Zack Santagate picking up an 8-3 victory against Desiati and Nicklas Wingord.
 
But MSU fell at No.1, as the Cats No.12 Hans Hach and Guilherme Gesser beat MSU's No. 9 Luke Joyce and Colby Meeks 8-5 to claim a point.
 
Davidson picked up his second point of the match at No. 2 singles, beating Gesser 6-2, 6-3, as Crawford did the same at No. 6 singles over Marco Bensley by the same score.
 
The featured singles match went to ACU at the No. 1 position, but not without a fight.
 
The Mustangs No. 44 Luke Joyce took the Wildcats No. 6 Hans Hach to three sets before falling 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
 
The Wildcats also scored with Wingord winning at No. 3 over Meeks 6-4, 6-0, while Cortes grabbed a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 4 against Kacper Boborykin.
 
MSU won the LSC Tournament for the third time with the victory, as 2013 is added to the Midwestern wins in 2001 and 2006.
 
The Mustangs, ranked fourth in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional rankings, defeated the top two teams in the region.  However, without an automatic bid for the LSC in the NCAA Men's Tournament, the Mustangs must wait until Tuesday evening's selection show at 7:30 to learn if they will be in the championship field.
 
The selection show will be web streamed on NCAA.com.