(SURPRISE, Ariz.) PLNU Men's Tennis beat Concordia for a third-straight time this season to finish a program-best third place at the PacWest Championships.
 
The Sea Lions hope that result helps them stay atop the regional rankings for the third-straight time as well.
 
Point Loma made its final pitch to the NCAA selection committee on Saturday, dominating Concordia 4-0. PLNU won two out of the three matches it played at the conference tournament, with its only loss being to tournament champion APU, 3-4, in Friday's semifinals.
 
"The match yesterday is one that's hard to let go of but that's what was actually kind of fun to be able to come out and play again to forget about it and move on to the next challenge," Head Coach Curt Wheeler said. "It's very easy to hold onto it and not move forward but the guys were great today against a Concordia team that played us close both times. We knew it was going to be a battle."
 
The Sea Lions started the match strongly by winning the doubles point. Tyler Davis and David Strassburger teamed up to win 6-4 at No. 2 doubles, before a tiebreak was needed on both the No. 1 and No. 3 courts, with Point Loma only needing to win one of those to clinch the doubles point.
 
Nabeel Khan and Elias Weeks got the job done at No. 3, winning their tiebreak to give PLNU a 1-0 lead.
 
"Getting that doubles point was huge," Wheeler said. "With Tyler playing through what he had, David playing through a small injury as well, and still coming up with a 6-4 win in doubles just set the tone for the day."
 
Alexander Leischner earned a break of serve in the first game of his No. 1 singles matchup, helping him cruise to a 6-2, 6-1 victory.
 
Strassburger claimed a 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 4, before Andrew Suver capped off PLNU's triumph in the Third Place Match with his 6-1, 7-5 victory at No. 4.
 
Suver trailed 3-5 in the second set before earning back-to-back breaks to turn around that deficit and win in straight sets.
 
"Without Tyler in singles, it was cool to see how the guys responded," Wheeler said of Davis' absence in singles because of injury. "Everybody from 3 down moved up and played some great tennis, which was really cool to see.
 
"You go through a season and you're never going to be completely healthy. There are going to be times where players have to step in. Alejandro stepped in and played great today even though he didn't get to finish his match."
 
Alejandro Castaneda was leading his No. 6 matchup (6-4, 3-3) when PLNU clinched its victory, as his tremendous passing shot down the line, with his opponent charging the net, finished off the first set with a break of serve.
 
Point Loma (18-3 overall), ranked first in the most recent NCAA regional rankings, will find out its postseason fate on Monday at 5:00 p.m. when the four teams to qualify for the NCAA West Regional are announced.
 
"I am confident in our guys that whomever we play, we're the best team in this region," Wheeler said. "I really believe that nobody wants to play us because they know what we're capable of. I feel like from the beginning of the season to now, we've shown that consistency.
 
"I feel like that consistency has been a big key of why we were ranked number one regionally and hopefully we remain there."