MOBILE, Ala. -- Each of the top 4 seeds advanced into the semifinals of the 2009 NAIA Men’s Tennis National Championship, and sixth-seeded Azusa Pacific suffered its first NAIA quarterfinals defeat since 2002 with Thursday’s 5-1 loss to Golden State Athletic Conference rival Fresno Pacific.

The end of the Cougars’ string of 6 consecutive NAIA semifinals appearances is matched only by Auburn Montgomery’s current 6-year run, and Azusa Pacific’s defeat was just its second ever in national tournament play to a GSAC opponent. The first was a 7-2 defeat to Vanguard in the 2000 quarterfinals.

Junior doubles tandem Matthijs Bolsius and Mathias Weber saved the Cougars from suffering a doubles sweep, cutting Fresno Pacific’s lead to 2-1 in the match with an 8-5 win at No. 1 doubles over the Sunbirds’ top tandem of Alex Gonzalez and Vicente Joli, the No. 2-ranked doubles partnership in the NAIA.

Fresno Pacific picked up a pair of straight-sets wins at No. 5 and 6 singles, and Gonzalez edged freshman Janosch Apelt, 6-3, 7-6, at No. 3 singles to eliminate the Cougars from the single-elimination tournament.

With the loss, Azusa Pacific drops to a final overall record of 14-13, the 13th consecutive winning campaign for the Cougars, who appeared in 5 straight national championship matches from 2003 to 2007.

SINGLES
3. Alex Gonzalez (FPU) def. Janosch Apelt (APU); 6-3, 7-6
5. Maxime Adam (FPU) def. Daniel Moore (APU); 6-2, 6-0
6. Jose Hilla (APU) def. Whitman Hough (APU); 6-3, 6-1

DOUBLES
1. Matthijs Bolsius/Mathias Weber (APU) def. Gonzalez/Vicente Joli (FPU); 8-5
2. Adam/Marco Foelz (APU) def. Ronald Chow/Moore (APU); 8-4
3. Hilla/Fabio Silva (FPU) def. Apelt/Ilja Ikonnikov (APU); 8-5