The Tour Begins - Downtown Rotary Club in Savannah

One of the absolutely best things about the National Championship is that you get to take the instantly recognizable trophies on tour. Just 24 hours after the Armstrong tennis teams stepped off the plane in returning to Savannah, several members of both teams were invited to join the Downtown Rotary Club of Savannah for lunch as guests of University President Dr. Linda Bleicken.

The Pirates were recognized by the Rotary Club during the lunch and got to hear Jason Freier, Chief Executive Officer of Hardball Capital LLC - owner of the Savannah Sand Gnats - talk about the proposed new multi-purpose park in Downtown Savannah that they want to build to not only be the new home of the club but home to several other yearly events as well, including possibly collegiate sporting events. Trust me, not your typical speaker on the occasions that we get called to be recognized. It was very informative and paints a pretty good picture of what the future of sporting events - and entertainment - in Savannah could look like.

Unfortunately, today also is the first day that our players start to disperse and head back home for the summer. But some will still be here, taking classes or working in Savannah so we hope to have future recognition for the Pirates soon. In fact, tomorrow night, Connect Savannah will be having its yearly Best of Savannah celebration. Remember, last year the Pirates were named the Best Local Collegiate Team by the voters of the magazine. This year, that honor goes to the Armstrong women's soccer team, who earned the program's first NCAA Southeast Region championship and NCAA Final Four appearance. Congratulations Pirates !

Welcome Back To Savannah !!

When we first started the blog in 2008 and Armstrong collected both National Championships in Houston, one of the biggest moments of that entire week was the reception that both teams got at the airport returning from the Festival.

This morning, history repeated itself for the Pirates as a very warm welcome at the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport awaited the Armstrong men's and women's tennis teams. With two National Championship trophies in tow, the Pirates were the hit of not only the Atlanta airport (or at least Terminal B) but Savannah airport as well. As an announcement over the PA welcomed the national champion Pirates home, spontaneous applause broke out among the other travelers as the teams made their way down the terminal to the waiting area, where members of the Armstrong athletic department, faculty, staff and the Savannah community cheered their return.

All three of the Savannah-area television stations were on the scene, as was the Savannah Morning News. Many hugs were given, many pictures were taken and we will have some video highlights of the welcome home tomorrow.

But for now, read about the coverage of the Pirates' national championships from C. Ray Hall, writing for the Savannah Morning News here (men) and here (women), as well as a wonderful NCAA.com column by Scott Rabelais about Armstrong senior Kathleen Henry here. You can also view highlights of both of the Championship matches thanks to NCAA.com here (men) and here (women).

You can also enjoy below two more views of the Championship-clinching points from the Armstrong men and women ! Go Pirates !!

Armstrong sophomore Georgi Rumenov captures Championship point for the Pirates vs. West Florida

Armstrong senior Kathleen Henry captures Championship point for the Pirates vs. BYU-Hawaii

Closing Ceremonies To End A Successful Louisville Stay

The Closing Ceremonies took place at Bowman Field in Louisville with a nice video highlight package of the week's action here at the 2012 NCAA DII Spring Sports Festival, the presentation of the trophies to the six different National Champions (including another school that also had the pleasure of pulling off the double championship - Nova Southeastern, which won both the men's and women's golf titles this season!) as well as a laser light show that just didn't get off the ground.

Nothing could dampen the enthusiasm of the Pirates, who are still riding sky high on pulling off both National Championships here in Louisville. Armstrong is now 2-for-2 in the last Spring Sports Festivals in the feat. What will 2016 bring? We shall see...

This also brings a close to the Armstrong Atlantic State University athletic season. Our fellow traveler to the festival, sophomore women's golfer Jenna Birch, fired a second consecutive 79 today to finish in 21st place at the NCAA Championships individually. Not bad for a player who had to chip-in on a playoff hole to get to Nationals! Birch will be back along with several of her teammates who won the 2012 Peach Belt Conference Championship, hungry to earn the program's first team NCAA berth in 2012-13 !
Baseball also fell today in the NCAA Southeast Regional to Catawba, 11-0.

But for now, it's time to celebrate, and you can do that as well by greeting the team coming back from Louisville on Sunday! The teams arrive back in Savannah on Delta Airlines (what else?) at 11:00 a.m. at the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport. This means a very early wake up time for us here in Louisville to catch that 7:15 a.m. flight, but it also means a day filled with celebration back home in Savannah tomorrow!

UNDEFEATED !!!!

You'll have to excuse the liberal use of exclamation points in the title there, but the rarity of having two tennis teams  - men's and women's - run through the season undefeated and pick up two NCAA DII Tennis Championships certainly begs for some excitement.

The Armstrong men's tennis team got out to a 3-0 lead after doubles on No. 2 West Florida, picking up  an 8-5 win at No. 1 doubles in a showdown of the top-ranked duo of Georgi Rumenov and Mikk Irdoja against the No. 2-ranked duo of Kevin Ducros and Bruno Savi. The Pirates won fairly easily at No. 2 doubles with No. 17-ranked Sven Lalic and Pedro Scocuglia defeating No. 18-ranked Leandro Ferreira and Andrey Pozhidaev and then collected an 8-6 win by Eudaldo Bonet and Matus Mydla at No. 3 doubles over Mike Lue and Domenico Sano.

In singles play, the Pirates won all six first sets, making it look like it would be an easy 5-0 win, but all credit to West Florida - they battled back in the second sets on all courts. No. 12-ranked Matus Mydla came up with the first point, getting a 6-2, 6-4 win over Leandro Ferreira at No. 4 singles. Top-ranked Georgi Rumenov then finished off the win, downing No. 7 Kevin Ducros, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 1 singles.

This is the third time that the Pirates have won both the men's and women's titles in the same season and tonight's Closing Ceremonies, where Armstrong will get on stage to collect both trophies, will be just as memorable and special as it was in 2008 in Houston for the last NCAA DII Spring Sports Festival.

And now for a little action photography skills to leave you with... we'll be back tonight for the Closing Ceremony wrapup !

gotcha Simon !

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS ! Pirates finish off Seasiders for 7th title

THE PIRATES ARE CHAMPIONS AGAIN! Armstrong women's tennis finished off No. 1 BYU-Hawaii for the seventh NCAA DII title in program history with a 5-2 victory on Saturday at the Top Gun Tennis Center.

After getting a 2-1 lead in doubles, the Pirates started out incredibly quick with five first sets in singles. A quick 6-2, 6-4 win by Clara Perez at No. 6 singles gave Armstrong a 3-1 lead, then Marlen Hacke came up with a big second-set tiebreak win to claim the fourth point, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).

It all came down to the lone senior on the team, Kathleen Henry, who earned a 6-4 first set win but trailed late in the second set. Down 5-3, Henry came up with a big hold and then a break to tie the game up at 5-5. Eventually the set would go to a tiebreak, where Henry built a 4-0 lead and closed out a 7-2 tiebreak to give Armstrong the title.

Armstrong has now tied BYU-Hawaii for the most DII women's tennis titles in NCAA history with seven and also have won four of the last five titles.

The men's team is just about to take the court, trying to give Armstrong the double championship for the third time in the last five seasons, as well as a second straight sweep at the DII Spring Sports Festival!

Armstrong leads 2-1 after doubles over BYU Hawaii

It didn't start off pretty, but it ended well for the Pirates in doubles. After a tough 8-1 loss at No. 1 doubles to the top-ranked doubles team in the nation, the Pirates were behind a break at No. 2 doubles and on serve at No. 3 doubles.

Five consecutive break points at No. 3 doubles went awry for Clara Perez and Kathleen Henry, but on the sixth, Perez hammered a return, resulting in a long volley and a key break point to put the Pirates up, 7-5. A held serve and Armstrong had its first point in the books, 8-5.

At No. 2 doubles, Olga Kalodzitsa and Marlen Hacke got a key break of their own late in their match, turning a 5-4 down score to a 6-5 lead and eventually an 8-5 win over the No. 4-ranked Jia and Tuionetoa  of the Seasiders, putting Armstrong up, 2-1.

We now head into singles play with the Pirates needing just three points to capture their seventh NCAA DII National Championship !

Championship Saturday

Welcome to Championship Saturday in Louisville. The Armstrong women's tennis team is on the court getting set to take on BYU-Hawaii in a matchup of two undefeated teams and the two teams that have won the most DII women's tennis titles in NCAA history. Put simply, it's the matchup most wanted to see and it should be the toughest match of the year for these two storied programs.

Follow along with live stats and watch along with live video of our match and we'll be back with updates as the match goes along.