Kearney, Neb. – Sophomore Lucas Garces and freshman Joey Richards won the Central Region men's doubles title Sunday afternoon at the USTA/ITA Central Regionals in Springfield, Mo.
 
Southwest Baptist hosted the three-day event that featured schools from the MIAA, NSIC (Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) and GAC (Great American Conference).
 
Seeded fourth, Garces (Spain) and Richards (Prairie, Minn.) received a first round bye before winning their next two matches by 8-2 and 8-4 scores. To reach the finals, they got past 5th-seed Albert Besa and Tiago Ferreira from SE Oklahoma State by an 8-6 margin.
 
In the finals against the second-seeded Kristof Kinal and Chris Blodig of SBU, Garces and Richards managed a 9-7 victory. The Lopers needed to rally, trailing by scores of 5-0 and 7-4.
 
UNK is no stranger to success in this tournament as Josh Raymond and Yeswanth Nadella won the 2011 Central Regional title and finished as national runners up. 
 
Garces and Richards now advance to the USTA/ITA Small College Championships October 9-12 in Sumter, SC. The pairings will be announced at a later date.
 
In men's singles, sophomore Mohab El Zanaty (Egypt) upset second-seed Marko Boskovic of Quachita (Ark.) Baptist to reach the quarterfinals.  After dropping the first set by a 6-4 margin, the 10th-seeded El Zanaty managed wins of 6-2 and 10-1.
 
Eventual champ Romain Boissinot of NW Missouri stopped El Zanaty in straight sets (6-2, 6-4) in the next round.  Richards, seeded fourth, lost to Lennart Lonneman of OBU in the third round (1-6, 7-5, 12-10).
 
On the women's side, No. 13 seed Kristin Weems (Arlington, Texas) managed two straight set wins in singles with sophomore Emily Fink (Elkhorn) taking her first round match by a 7-5, 7-5 score. Finally, freshman Paige Crews (Greeley, Colo.) won two singles matches in the "B" flight.
 
Next weekend, the Loper men head to Omaha for a Division I tournament