Reflections as the Pirates return home

As you can see above, all three Pirate teams made it back to Savannah safe and sound on Sunday. Which gives us time to reflect on just what a thrilling week it was for Armstrong State University Athletics out in Denver.

The 10th national championship for Armstrong State women's tennis was, historically, the closest since the 2005 title in which the Pirates ended BYU-Hawaii's record 130-match winning streak by a similar 5-3 score. Armstrong State has also now successfully defended its national title five separate times - 1995-1996, during the "three-peat" of 2008-2010, in 2012-13 and now 2014-15. A wise man once said that it's harder to stay at the top than getting to the top and the Pirates have been very successful staying at the top.

Armstrong State softball captivated the Regency Athletic Complex crowd with three straight elimination wins to advance to Friday's if-necessary game against Humboldt State. And they did it with a never-say-die attitude that stretched across all facets of the game. Pitching, defense and timely hitting all helped the Pirates make its deepest postseason run in school history. Also, Armstrong State has been to the DII Championships finals site three of the last four seasons. Only two other teams in Peach Belt history can say they've done that - Kennesaw State and North Georgia. Both of those programs have won DII national titles. The Pirates are close... and return 15 players for 2017 who were a part of the team that went to Denver this season, gaining valuable experience.

And finally, men's tennis. The Pirates have been achingly close the last three seasons to picking up a fourth national title, and Friday's loss to top-ranked Saint Leo was a tough one to take for many reasons beyond the court. But for three straight years, the Pirates have faced the top-ranked team in the nation in the semifinals, in matches which they clearly were not the favorites in, and fought to the very last point. The pride which they have shown in defeat is as impressive as any of the three titles Armstrong State has been fortunate enough to win. Nobody should question that. Nobody.

So the summer comes and these Pirates will head home or to other places to take a break from school and competition. For the seniors, the festival experience was especially bittersweet as they now face the prospect of either finishing school without being able to compete for the Pirates or heading out into the "real world" for their respective careers. For those who return to Armstrong State next season to once again don the Pirate uniform, this week showed them what it takes to reach the pinnacle of collegiate athletics - hoisting that trophy!

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! ... that's right, say it again. NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

When Armstrong State went down 2-1 in doubles to top-ranked and unbeaten BYU-Hawaii, things on the surface may have looked bleak for the Pirates. Especially when the teams split first sets, knowing that the Seasiders needed to win just three singles matches to capture the title and were half way there.

These Pirates, however, do not know when to give up.

Four singles wins later - including a clinching 1-6, 6-0, 6-3 match by junior Diana Stomlega over the Seasiders' Jeong Min-Jeon - and Armstrong State is once again your NCAA Division II National Champions!

Singles play had plenty of momentum swings but the straight-set wins by Lena Pacholski, Alejandra Cisneros and Carolina Prats-Millan set the tone and if Diana wasn't going to clinch, Lena Lutzeier was almost certainly going to do so against the top-ranked player in the country the way her match was going. That's right, the Pirates would have won five singles matches against the top-ranked team in the nation.

As much as it is a title for the women's tennis team, though, we have to give a very special thanks to ALL the Pirates who cheered on the team to victory - including the men's tennis team, the softball team and the student-athlete parents who all came out to Denver. Pirate Nation was in full force today and it was a spectacular sight to see.

Tonight, the closing ceremonies will take place at the Sheraton Downtown and we look forward to seeing the Pirates walk across the stage to pick up their trophy - the 10th in school history!

Pirates Trail BYU-Hawaii 2-1 After Doubles

When you looked at the doubles lineup for both teams, BYU-Hawaii had a clear advantage at the top two spots - and the Seasiders used that advantage well in taking two of three doubles points here in the 2016 NCAA Division II National Championship match.

The Pirates won at No. 3 doubles as Nicole Fossa Huergo and Lena Pacholski dispatched Jade Griffin and Kanela Adamson, 8-3, but BYU won at No. 1 doubles, 8-5, and at No. 2 doubles, 8-3, to put Armstrong State behind the 8-ball in the singles play.

All four times that Armstrong State has beaten BYU-Hawaii in the national championship match, it has done so while holding a 2-1 advantage after doubles. If the Pirates are going to capture their 10th, they will have to dig deep and find a way to win four of six singles matches against one of the strongest singles lineups in the nation.

Championship Saturday

We have reached Championship Saturday here at the DII Spring Sports Festival and the Armstrong State women's tennis team has arrived to begin pre-game warmups for the 9 am MT tilt against BYU-Hawaii. Just a reminder, you can watch all the action today through NCAA.com and follow live stats via Statbrodcast.

The last time Armstrong State and BYU-Hawaii faced off, it was the 2013 NCAA DII National Championship match in Arizona. None of the players in that matchup, however, are on either team today so it really is a bit of an unknown battle despite the amount of times these two teams have faced each other over the years. BYU Hawaii held off a furious comeback from Saint Leo yesterday in singles, winning 5-3 after going up 2-1 in doubles. The Seasiders actually trailed St. Mary's (Texas) 2-1 in doubles in the quarterfinals before winning 5-2. 

Doubles will be key and whichever team today has the edge going into singles will have a huge advantage in trying to bring home the trophy!

Consolation

It's never easy to write about a season's end, especially so close to the goal that every collegiate team has at the start of the season - a trophy. Today, the Pirates saw two great teams close the book on years that started off with optimism that played itself out in deep postseason runs.

Armstrong State men's tennis ran into the top-ranked team in the nation, Saint Leo, in the semifinals and battled hard in a 5-hour slugfest against the Lions, falling 5-2. It was the third straight time that the Pirates have faced the top-ranked team in the nation in the semifinals. All three times, the Pirates have fought to the last point, but have come up short against the nation's best. This team should not hang its head - Armstrong State proved all season long and today that it deserved its No. 2 national ranking and smart money says the way SLU is playing now, they should come out on top in tomorrow's national championship match. Either way though it should be a fun one to watch between the Lions and Hawaii Pacific.

Softball, meanwhile, captivated the crowds here around the DII Festival as well as the folks back home in Savannah with their magical run to today. Any team that can win three straight elimination games - and five overall in the NCAAs - can't feel bad about having the run come to a close, which it did today to No. 5-ranked Humboldt State, 6-2. But the Pirates learned a lot about themselves this postseason. They learned that even when the outcome seems predetermined, when in games the outlook is bleak - never let up. "All Gas, No Brakes" was the team's slogan this year and they epitomized it all season long.

Now the best thing about being in the DII Festival is that the Armstrong women's tennis team will have a huge cheering section as the Pirates play for the national title tomorrow at 9 a.m. against BYU-Hawaii. GO PIRATES!

Women's Tennis Through; Men's Tennis Faces A Tough Break

The No. 3-ranked and defending national champion Armstrong State University women's tennis team breezed their way into the national championship match with a 5-0 win over No. 7 Hawai'i Pacific in the semifinals on Friday morning. Sweeping the doubles helped the Pirates advance to their 15th national championship match - an NCAA DII record - and tomorrow Armstrong State will face old nemesis BYU-Hawai'i in the final. The Seasiders are unbeaten this season at 25-0, ranked No. 1 and had to battle in putting away No. 2 Saint Leo, 5-2, in the semifinals.

Armstrong State and BYU-Hawai'i have met seven previous times in the national championship match with the Pirates holding a 4-3 edge. The teams met in back-to-back years in 2012 (at the last DII Sports Festival in Louisville) and in 2013 in Surprise, Ariz., with Armstrong State winning both times. A win for the Pirates tomorrow would be their 10th DII women's crown.

The men, facing a stiff test against No. 1 Saint Leo, got a very quick 8-1 doubles win from Pablo Gor Costales and Ignacio Hernandez at No. 2 doubles, but the Lions got just a single break of serve at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles, winning both matches 8-6 and putting the Pirates down 2-1 as we head into singles play. Watch the singles play via NCAA.com and hope that Armstrong State can dig deep and come back to join the women in tomorrow's Championship Saturday!

Defense Wins Championships

The axiom of "defense wins championships" gets a lot of run but mostly from old-school sports fans who remember the days of dominant NFL defenses, or even NBA teams like the San Antonio Spurs.

Well, the Armstrong State softball team would like to re-introduce you to the concept.

Late this afternoon, the No. 16-ranked Pirates won their third straight elimination contest at the DII Championships with a 3-2 win over Humboldt State, meaning that Armstrong State is just one win away from a best-of-three National Championship series. And defense was the key.

With the game tied 2-2, Armstrong State pushed across the go-ahead run thanks to an errant throw by the Lumberjacks' left fielder after a Jane Trzaska single in the bottom of the fifth inning.

Nursing a one-run lead in the final two innings, the Pirates turned not one, but two straight inning-ending double plays - the seventh inning gem a 6U unassisted play by true freshman Macy Coleman - to preserve the 3-2 win and send Armstrong State into Friday.

The Pirates led the Peach Belt Conference in double plays in 2016 and so far this postseason, Armstrong State has turned five, including four in Denver alone. And with the Pirates needing to win three more games to bring home the program's first national championship, Armstrong State might need to turn a few more to keep its hopes of that title alive.

So the lineup is set for Armstrong State athletics on Friday - women's tennis faces HPU at 9:00 am MT / 11:00 am ET, then men's tennis takes on Saint Leo at Noon MT / 2:00 p.m. ET. The rubber game between Pirate softball and Humboldt State takes place at 2:30 p.m. MT / 4:30 p.m. ET. You can watch all of the Pirates' action on NCAA.com tomorrow and see if Armstrong State can pull off the extraordinary and have three teams in contention for a national championship just 36 hours from now!