WICHITA FALLS – The Cameron Aggies are going to nationals for the third season in a row by beating rivals Midwestern State 5-3 on their home court to win the NCAA South Central Regional on Sunday afternoon.

With the win number-29 Cameron will go to the NCAA National Championships in Surprise, Ariz. to play the team advancing out of the Atlantic Region's number-2 bracket on May 13. 

Cameron's victory over the Mustangs is their fifth ever in Wichita Falls and an upset over the number-12 ranked team in the nation who beat the Aggies 6-3 just two weeks ago.

CU's path proved to more difficult than in years past after a uneven regular season to force the Aggies down to the number-4 seed and needing to play their way into the regional championship.  In the last two years, the Aggies have hosted, and need to play one duel to advance.

On Saturday, the Aggies had to battle back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Newman 5-2.  This time around the Aggies came out on the better end of doubles play by taking a 2-1 lead on the Mustangs.  Angelo Lencioni and Iustin Baciu won in the number-3 doubles court 8-6, and the pairing of Felipe Oyarzun and Mateo Velasco broke a 5-5 tie to win 8-6 in the top-slot.

When play resumed in singles, Lencioni was first to finish on court-5 with a 6-2, 6-3 win to give CU a 3-1 lead.  Dennis Merdan had a singles upset on court-1 by besting number-30 ranked Kacper Boborykin 7-5, 6-4.  

Midwestern State would win on courts four and two to pull within one of the Aggies.  However, Joao Fazendeiro rallied back from being swept in set-2 to win 6-2 in the third to hand CU the regional title. 

"I told the team before got off the van today that they needed to step-up and we did today," said head coach James Helvey.  "This was the best tennis we've played all year.  I felt like this was the two best teams out of the region and I knew whoever won would represent us well."

"The key was to get through doubles and once we went up 2-1 I felt like we were golden going into singles.  Dennis' win in the top singles slot was huge; he's lost to Midwestern's guy before and I told him he due and Dennis came up big for us today."

Should have the match continued Baciu was the lone remaining player on the court, and he was tied 6-2, 6-7 (4-7) and ready for a third set.

Midwestern State will see their season halted with a 16-6 overall record.

Cameron will go to 16-8 overall and will await their opponent which will be decided on Monday evening.