The York University Lions men's tennis team defeated the University of Waterloo Warriors 4-2 on Sunday (Oct. 18) to claim the OUA men's tennis championship. It was the eighth time York has captured the men's tennis OUA banner.



The Lions came into the game seeded in first place after a 5-1 record in the regular season and lived up to that billing, capturing their third title in five years.



They started off their games at the UOIT Campus Tennis Centre with the doubles matches. The men gave it their all, and pulled out a close 2-1 victory, earning them the first point of the day. The pairings of Mikhail Lew (Caracas, Venezuela) and Ahmed Shebl (Richmond Hill, Ont.) and Anthony Rakic (Toronto) and Stan Faynberg (Thornhill, Ont.) both won their doubles matches by scores of 8-5 while Jason Xue (Toronto) and Tomo Ono (Toronto) were defeated 8-3.



The first four singles matches were split evenly, 2-2, with Lew and Robert Weese (Aurora, Ont.) winning. The men needed one more point to take home the gold and it all came down to  Shebl against Waterloo's Milos Agatonovic. Shebl won the match in three sets, 4-6, 6-1 and 6-3, giving York their final point and the OUA title.



"The players on both teams played extremely well today," said York head coach Michael Mitchell. "We knew going into the match that Waterloo was a tough opponent but we managed to come out with the win. Our entire team worked hard for this victory."



The women's team also played on Sunday, vying for the bronze medal. The women were in third place coming into the tournament, and after a close loss on Saturday (Oct. 17), were slated to play against the Toronto Varsity Blues for the bronze. The women handily beat the Varsity Blues in doubles play, winning all three matches and taking the first point.