STEUBENVILLE, Ohio – Franciscan men's tennis finished off an undefeated regular season in conference play with a 9-0 sweep of Mount Aloysius, securing the no. 1 seed for this weekend's AMCC tournament.

The Barons went an incredible 54-0 in individual matches this season and 107-1 over the past two years.

"It feels good. We tried to do it last year but lost one, so it was 53-1, but this year we did it," head coach Jeremy Ellis said. "Hopefully we will be able to bring that into the tournament this weekend. "

The strong wind did present a little bit of a challenge to the team but one they were easily able to overcome with Mount Aloysius only winning nine total games on the afternoon.

"Every time we play at our home facility, there's either crazy wind or it's cold," Ellis said. "This kind of wind makes it really tough but we adapt and still win."

Four individual FUS matches were won at love, two coming in doubles play at nos. 2 and 3 and two in singles play at nos. 4 and 6.

One of those wins came off the racket of the team's only senior, John Bruce, playing in his last collegiate tennis match and going out on a high note, winning 6-0, 6-0 at no. 6 singles.

"He really wanted to play and being our only senior on the team, it was good to put him out there," Ellis said. "He's a tough player to beat. He gets a lot of balls back. He's a human backboard. For him to go out there and have that match and win zero and zero is cool."

Bruce said, "It was my childhood dream to play NCAA tennis, and now I've done it. I can always say that I'm an NCAA athlete. All of my hard work comes into this day and it's beautiful. "

The team now turns its focus to the conference tournament in the hopes of winning their third consecutive title and the fourth in program history.

"Everyone is just ready for the tournament," Ellis said. "Our last conference match is over and we are ready to play."

The Barons will begin their title defense with a rematch of last year's conference championship, playing no. 4 seed Pitt.-Greensburg in the AMCC semifinals on April 18 at 3 pm.