Toronto, ON - For the fourth straight season and 23rd time in program history, the Western Mustangs are OUA Men's Tennis Champions.

The Mustangs topped the Waterloo Warriors in group play 6-1 and earned a spot in the Gold Medal match against their perennial rivals from the University of Toronto.

"We are missing two players with injury that would play top 6, that's a third of our line up not there." said Mustangs Co-Head Coach Anthony Glavanic "It was a huge uphill battle but all the boys passed the gut check and I couldn't be more proud of them for it."

Western would drop 2 of 3 doubles matches, only Ashton Cross & Glenn Brisbois Espinoza winning their match 8-1. This meant the Varsity Blues took the doubles point and the advantage heading into the singles round.

In the singles matches, Toronto took the #1 & #5 matches with Brisbois Espinoza & Lawson Cross falling 7-5,6-4 & 6-0,6-1 respectively. Western would battle though with Ashton Cross dropping the 1st set of his match 6-1 but winning the 2nd and 3rd sets 6-2 & 6-3 to secure a point for Western. 

"Losing that doubles point right off the bat was a big wake up call for us." said Cross "In my singles match, I lost the first set, but Coach Powell really helped me turn things around and pull out the win."

Ray Xie & Aidan Zia dominated their matches 6-0,6-0 & 6-2,6-2 to add 2 more points to the total to make it a 3-3 overall score. The #6 match was the one that held the entire tournament in the balance. Ethan Milavsky won the first set 6-4 but dropped the second set 7-5. In the 3rd set Milavsky powered his way to a 7-5 win and the Mustangs took the OUA Banner once again by a final scores of 4-3.

"I've never had a comeback like that, and to do it in my last OUAs and bring my team to Nationals is an amazing feeling." said Milavsky "The support from the team during the match made all the difference!"

The Mustangs were well represented in the end of season awards handed out at the conclusion of the championship. Aidan Zia was named OUA Rookie of the Year while Head Coaches Cameron Cross & Anthony Glavanic were named OUA Coaches of the Year for the second consecutive season and Glenn Brisbois & Ethan Milavsky were named OUA All Stars.

The win secures the Mustangs a berth in the Canadian University Tennis Championships which is annually held during the National Bank Open which will be in summer 2023.

OUA Men's Tennis Awards

Major Awards 
Player of the year: Rassam Yazdi, Toronto
Rookie of the year: Aidan Zia, Western
Coach of the year: Cameron Cross & Anthony Glavanic, Western
 
OUA All-Stars 
Glenn Brisbois, Western
Ethan Milavsky, Western
Rassam Yazdi, Toronto
Alec Luckak, Toronto