It’s what every junior and college tennis player dreams of – clinching the final match at 3-all to win the NCAA team championship.

Just two weeks ago, it was Irvine native Sebastian Gorzny who was living that dream as the Texas Christian University sophomore saw that his teammate Jack Pinnington had upset the nation’s No. 2 player Eliot Spizzirri of Texas on Court 1. 

“I lost the second set and looked up and saw Jack up 4-1 and thought if he could get over the finish line it would all come down to me,” said Gorzny, squaring off against Jonah Braswell at the No. 5 line. “It was pretty surreal. It was my first-ever college match where I was the last one on the court to clinch and I was hoping I would get a chance and it would come down to me. 

“That’s what everybody dreams about in college and to just test yourself in that position and be able to win it for your teammates, there’s nothing like it.” 

When the final point was won, Gorzny was mobbed by his teammates and coaches – TCU head coach David Roditi and assistant Devin Bowen, who like Gorzny, all played junior tennis growing up in Orange County. 

“I’ll tell you what Sebastian is one of the best competitors we’ve ever seen,” Bowen said a few days after the first NCAA team title for TCU. “The performance under the pressure of that match and what he accomplished was incredible. And I wouldn’t choose anyone else for that spot. I felt it when it came down to his match and was so thankful it was Sebastian because I trusted him to deliver. That’s just what he does. This guy knows how to win.” 

Bowen thinks Gorzny will make a “phenomenal” professional. “Even though he was playing No. 5, he is that good and he’s only going to get better,” Bowen said. “He’s ready to make the next jump. I can see him going deep into some Challengers and Futures this summer. He’s just incredible.” 

In a somewhat surprising move, both Roditi and Bowen said to this reporter first that Gorzny had let them know that he planned to enter the transfer portal, and it was later reported, it would be to Big-12 rival Texas. 

“He was looking to take online classes and we don’t offer that at TCU,” Roditi said. “And I know he wanted to play higher in the lineup. At the end of last year, we felt there were four or five guys that could play anywhere from one and five. We had guys that had won Futures during the summer, and Sebastian didn’t. And that’s how we set our lineup. Seb was playing four until the last week of the season. And the lineup obviously worked for us.”

Added Bowen: “I know in his heart he wants to turn pro. If he has a breakout summer, he will turn pro. He wanted to take some online classes. He’s a great student, but he doesn’t want to go to class.” 

Gorzny’s family moved to Austin when he was 14, and said he was looking forward to playing closer to home. “I was really looking for a change and my family is there so it would be great to be close to them,” he said. “Turning pro is obviously my goal, but it’s very hard to do. You have to be top 200 or 300 in the world to make a living out there and it’s tough to do.” 

Gorzny concluded the season at No. 77 in the final ITA rankings and this week is entered into the first SoCal Pro Series event of the summer at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego. Ranked No. 1068 in the world ATP rankings, he fell to former UCLA player and No. 2 seed Karue Sell in the second round, 6-4, 6-2.

Even though he lost in the second round in singles, Gorzny was able to clinch his first ITF title later in the week in doubles, pairing with former junior foe and buddy from his hometown of Irvine, Learner Tien to take down North Carolina State duo Robin Catry and Braden Shick in the final, 1-6, 6-3, 10-1.

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It wasn’t as dramatic as a finish as Gorzny experienced, but the results and feelings were the same for City of Orange native Carson Branstine, who helped lead the Texas A&M women’s team to their first-ever NCAA championship beating Georgia, 4-1.  

Leading 3-1, it was a race to see who would clinch first and that honor ultimately went to Branstine’s teammate Nicole Khirin even though Branstine had jumped out to a 5-0 third-set lead in her match that went unfinished before the celebration ensued. 

The Aggies (28-7) got redemption after dropping their three contests to Georgia during the season, including a 4-1 loss at in the SEC Tournament championship match.

In other final college tennis news, UC-Santa Barbara’s Amelia Honer made history when she became first Gaucho women to make the NCAA quarterfinals. UCSB’s Pablo Masjuan became the first Gaucho All-American since 2019 and the first since 1989 to reach the Round of 16. The two UCSB results at the NCAAs were the best for any SoCal players. 

The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men held a 4-2 lead over Chicago in the final of the Division III national title match, only to fall 5-4. CMS ends its season at 29-4 after making it to the national championship match for the first time since 2018, and winning 25 matches in a row before falling one win short of the program’s third NCAA title. The CMS women’s team’s bid for a third straight national title fell short in a 5-3 loss in the Division III semifinals to Wesleyan. CMS ended the season at 25-2 after it spent the entire season ranked No. 1. 

NCAA Division II Azusa-Pacific men’s coach Mark Bohren was named the Men’s National Coach of the Year by the ITA. Bohren led the Cougars to the program’s first undefeated regular season (19-0), a program-record 23-match winning streak, a third-straight PacWest championship, and a second-consecutive appearance in the round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Azusa-Pacific fell short at the NCAA losing to Charleston (W.V.) in the quarterfinals.

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