CHATTANOOGA, TENN. – Third-seeded Samford topped No. 5 Furman, 4-3, in the finals of the SoCon Men's Tennis Championship Saturday afternoon at the Champions Club.

The Bulldogs improve to 19-5 on the season and earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.

Making its first conference tournament finals appearance since 2019, Furman captured the doubles point after a pair of tiebreaker victories at No. 1 and No. 3. Samford won at No. 2 before Elijah Poritzky and Matt Kandel claimed their sixth victory of the season with a 7-6(3) triumph over Darcy Nicholls and J.B. Pickard. Playing at No. 3, Nicolas Dispas and Nico Snyder clinched the point with their team leading 14^th win of the year, 7-6(4), against Sebastian Harrison and Victorio Sardinha.

The Bulldogs started singles with three straight victories at No. 3, No. 5, and No. 6 to hold a 3-1 lead. The Paladins answered back with back-to-back wins from Poritzky at No. 1 and Kandel at No. 2 to even the score, 3-3. Poritzky secured his sixth victory at No. 1 when he defeated Sandeep Mohandoss, 6-4, 6-4, and Kandel added his eight win at No. 2 with a three-set victory against Nicholls, 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-2.

For the fourth straight match, the contest was decided with the score tied at 3-3 after Walker Allen and Pickard sent their No. 4 match to the third set. Allen took the opening set, 6-4, and Pickard followed in the second, 6-3. Pickard clinched the match for Samford winning the third set, 6-2.

Furman concludes its season with a 9-15 overall record.