ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. – Azusa Pacific got off to a hot start at the 2025 NCAA Division II Men's Tennis National Championships by beating North Georgia 4-1 in 95-degree Florida weather in the round of 16 at Sanlando Park on Tuesday afternoon, controlling the match from start to finish.
 
Miha Velicki and Joan Crespo clinched the doubles point, and then each won their singles matches before Soeren Grandke clinched the match at No. 2 singles for the Cougars. With the help of critical tiebreak wins by Crespo and Grandke, Azusa Pacific is back into the quarterfinal round at the NCAA National Championships and it is the first time since 2022 for the fourth time in program history.
 
The No. 6-seeded Cougars are now 24-4 on the season after defeating the Peach Belt runner-up. No. 11 seed North Georgia pulled of two 4-3 wins in the regional rounds to reach the national stage and the Nighthawks finish the season with a 14-7 record.


Azusa Pacific will next face No. 3 seed UT Tyler in the quarterfinal round at 3 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday. The Patriots won 4-0 against No. 14 Edinboro to set up the quarterfinal meeting with the Cougars.
 
In doubles, Velicki and Crespo got out to a 5-0 lead at No. 2 doubles to give the Cougars a strong start to the match. Grandke and Elias Emilio Walter finished their match first by quickly winning the final three games of their set for a 6-3 win at No. 1 doubles.
 
David James Brownlee and Brody Bohren broke back late at No. 3 doubles but eventually fell 6-4. Velicki and Crespo had dropped three games in a row but still had a comfortable lead. They then won their set 6-3 to take the early advantage into singles. The Cougars have only lost once all year when they win the doubles point.
 
Max Schmidhauser got the Cougars off to a strong start in singles by winning his opening set 6-1 after winning the first five games in a row. Velicki and Crespo also won their first sets at No. 3 and 5 singles respectively to give the Cougars a big early advantage.
 
The No. 1 singles match was a battle of top-25 players in NCAA Division II. North Georgia's Pedro Liborio, ranked No. 24, broke late in the first set against No. 14 Elias Emilio Walter to steal the opening set 6-3 and the Nighthawks also won the first set at No. 4 singles.
 
No. 27 Grandke trailed throughout the first set against No. 56 Robin Eldin but he hung tight to eventually force a first-set tiebreaker. Grandke then won that critical tiebreaker 7-3 to give the Cougars the first set on four of the six courts.
 
Marcos Castellanos went on to win No. 4 singles for the Nighthawks against Brownlee, 6-4, 6-2 to make the overall score 1-1. The Nighthawks also grabbed break leads at No. 5 and 6 singles while Franco Rebora won the second set at No. 3 singles as momentum shifted drastically in favor of North Georgia.
 
Crespo immediately broke back in his second set and then Walter won his second set 6-3, while Velicki won five games in a row to start the deciding set at No. 3 singles, switching the momentum back in favor of the Cougars.
 
Veteran Velicki proved the value of his experience at the national stage in his deciding set and won the match 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 to give Azusa Pacific a 2-1 lead. It is his first career win at nationals and it gives him a 19-6 singles record on the season, which is tied for second-most wins on the team.
 
Crespo got his second set into a tiebreaker, and the junior transfer played his best tennis of the day in the latter stages of each set. He won the tiebreaker 7-5 to take the match at No. 5 singles 6-4, 7-6(5), giving the Cougars a 3-1 lead. Crespo now has a nine-match winning streak going into the quarterfinal round.
 
No. 1 and No. 6 singles were both beginning their third sets as Grandke battled through the second set against Eldin. Breaks were hard to come by for either player in the match but in the end, Grandke broke for the match to win 7-6(3), 6-4, clinching the victory for the Cougars. The sophomore is now a perfect 8-0 in his career between singles and doubles in the NCAA postseason.
 
Grandke also has a 25-2 record in singles for the season. He is now tied with Ben Eger and Sam Fletcher for the third-most singles wins in a single season by a Cougar and he has the most in over a decade, surpassing Oliver Frank.
 
The Cougars are now one win away from equaling their best result in program history as they get ready to face UT-Tyler. The winner of that match will face the winner of No. 2 Barry and No. 7 Washburn in the semifinals. UT-Tyler earned the No. 3 seed by going 23-2 so far this season, including a 4-3 win at home against Lubbock Christian.