HATTIERBURG, Miss. – The South Alabama men's tennis team kicked off its fall season at the Southern Mississippi Invitational on Friday (Sept. 29). The team saw singles action against Louisiana-Lafayette and Southern Mississippi with doubles action against Alabama-Birmingham.
 
"In the morning, the guys played well. Our two freshmen, (Nathan) Fruh and (Santiago) Di Loreto, lost their matches, but played some good tennis in their first college matches," assistant coach Juan Troglia said. "Our upperclassmen, (Olivier) Gingras and (Lucas) Gonzalez, struggled at first, but marched on to come out on top."
 
South split four matches with Louisiana-Lafayette. Senior Olivier Gringas (Quebec City, Quebec, Canada) defeated Jamie Fraser 3-6, 6-4 (10-8) and junior Lucas Gonzalez (Chateauroux, France) defeated Dominic Koenig 2-6, 6-2 (10-7). Freshman Santiago Di Loreto (Buenos Aires, Argentina) fell to Arthur Libaud 4-6, 3-6, while freshman Nathan Fruh (Fairhope, Ala.) dropped a close decision to Pierce Gilheany 1-6, 6-2 (5-10).
 
In doubles action against UAB, Gingras and Di Loreto fell to Anru Fourie and Kenton Parton 6-4, while Gonzalez and Fruh fell to Nikolai Manchev and Henry Paiste 6-1.
 
Against USM, Gingras fell to Teeradon Tortrakul 3-6, 4-6, Gonzalez fell to Daniel Merker 5-7, 3-6, di Loreto fell to Chung Han Tsai 4-6, 7-6 (10), and Fruh dropped his match to Mikhail Esipov 0-6, 2-6.
 
"Tomorrow will be another long day and we need to have a better attitude to be more competitive on the court," Troglia said.
 
The Jaguars return to action tomorrow (Sept. 30) to close out the USM Invitational with singles action against UAB at 10 a.m.