Richmond prevented the GW men’s tennis team from capturing its first Atlantic 10 crown in 25 years, defeating the Colonials 4-1 in the final of the A-10 tournament Saturday in Monroeville, Pa.

“We’re happy that we got to the finals, but it was very disappointing to lose there,” said senior co-captain Matt Hane. “Everybody wanted to win a conference championship. It was a tough loss. We thought we had a chance to win.”

Junior Jake Jopling scored the only point of the day for GW, a 6-4, 6-0 victory in the third singles spot. Hane teamed with Jopling to win at No. 1 doubles, but GW lost the other two doubles matches and could not secure a point.

The match with Richmond, Hane said, was closer than the score indicated. His and junior Matt Treadgold’s singles matches were canceled in the middle of the third set after the Spiders scored the fourth and deciding point of the day.

“If we’d finished all of the matches it probably would have been 4-3,” he said. Richmond defeated GW 4-3 when the two teams met during the regular season.

Despite not being able to complete his final match as a Colonial, Hane finished with a stellar career record of 65-22. He also finished 18-3 on the year.

After posting a 12-6 regular season record, GW received a bye in the first round of the tournament. To advance to the finals, the No. 2 seeded Colonials defeated No. 7 Temple 4-0 in the quarterfinals Thursday and No. 3 St. Joseph’s 4-2 in the semifinals Friday.

“St. Joe’s was a tough match for us, and a very good win,” Hane said.

Against the Hawks Friday, the Colonials lost the doubles point for the first time in five matches but won four singles matches to take the win.

Jopling, sophomore Will Timmons and senior Brett Warner all won their singles matches against the Owls Thursday to help secure the victory.

With a win in the finals, Richmond earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament and collected their second A-10 championship in three years. It was the Colonials’ 10th trip to the conference finals in the program’s history.

–Subir Grewzl contributed to this report.