UPDATE: No. 2 seed South Alabama will face No. 6 Georgia Southern, who defeated Texas-Arlington 4-3.

NEW ORLEANS – The University of South Alabama No. 47 and second-seed men's tennis team (22-5) swept No. 7 seed Appalachian State (12-9) 4-0 on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at the City Park/Pepsi Tennis Center.
 
The Jaguars will either face No. 3 Texas-Arlington or No. 6 Georgia Southern on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. in the semifinals.
 
"We started on fire in doubles," said South Alabama head coach Nick Brochu. "Within five minutes we're up on all three courts. The coaches told the guys they have to be focused. When the team gets to a championship tournament like this, it's easy to be distracted and look around to see who's going to be clinching. It's not a race, but you want to give your team a point pretty fast. I think everybody was right on the money. At the end of doubles we won number one and we had both teams at No. 2 and 3 serving for the match."
 
Senior Juan Cruz Soria (San Juan, Argentina) and freshman Loic Cloes (Remicourt, Belgium) won the first doubles match 6-2 over Milo Bargeron and Scott Webster on court No. 1. It was a race to clinch the doubles point for the Jags, and junior Olivier Gingras (Quebec City, Quebec, Candada) and senior Pierre Noyon (Oye-Plage, France) claimed it with a 6-4 victory over Alex Brea and Alex Pavkovich on court No. 3. Senior Tuki Jacobs (Windhoek, Namibia) and sophomore Lucas Gonzalez (Chateauroux, France) were just one game away from winning on court No. 2, leading 5-2 against Jack Maddocks and Trey Morris on court No. 2.
 
Noyon acquired the first singles point with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Brea on court No. 6. Cloes then won on court No. 4 6-1, 7-5 over Bargeron, and on court No. 5 Gonzalez beat Pavkovich 6-3, 6-3 to end the match.
 
"We took the momentum into singles," said Brochu. "We won five first sets. Four of them literally were fast. The guys feel good and we were pushing really hard. That's how we have to play."
 
Gingras led his match on court No. 3 6-1, 4-3 against Morris, and Soria also was up 7-5, 3-2 versus Maddocks on court No. 2. No. 104 Jacobs was in a second set (4-6, 1-2) with Webster on court No. 1.
 
"This was a late match for us, and we need to get some rest for tomorrow," said Brochu. "Unfortunately we haven't played Georgia Southern or Texas-Arlington this year. We saw both teams in the tournament last year. They are a great opponent for us. Both are fighting really hard, and tomorrow should be a good match. We have to focus on what we need to do. That's how we've been successful this year. It will come down to all six players giving their best to put us in position to win."
 
Join the Baseline Club, the tennis-specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Baseline Club go directly to support the South Alabama men's and women's tennis programs. For more information on how you can join visit:  jaguarathleticfund.com/baselineclub.
 
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).