TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The University of South Alabama men's tennis team opened the 2010 spring season Saturday with a split of two matches held at the Scott Speicher Tennis Center on the campus of Florida State.

The Jaguars defeated Florida Gulf Coast 5-0 before falling to No. 13 Florida State 5-2.

In singles action the Jaguars did not lose a set in the 5-0 shutout of FGCU. Junior Lucas Viel picked up the first win of the day for South Alabama over Matthew Rock in the No. 2 position 6-1, 6-0. Following Viel's win, Christian Kuehne defeated Steve Binninger 6-0, 6-1 at No. 5 and sophomore Hanno Bartsch beat Sebastian Leitz 6-0, 6-3 at No. 3. At the No. 1 spot sophomore Romain Bocaert defeated the Eagles' Thibaud Aime 6-4, 7-5 clinching the win for the Jags.

At the No. 6 position newcomer Jairo Seur was victorious over Gabriel Echeverry 6-2, 6-3.

"This morning our number one objective was to have a very strong start," USA head coach Nick Brochu said. "We wanted to take the lead early and finish early in order to save our energy for Florida State. I think we accomplished that and the guys played well for their first match."

No doubles matches were played against Florida Gulf Coast.

With the win over FGCU the Jags advanced to play the host Seminoles in the afternoon.

"Going into the championship match against Florida State we knew they'd be loud and bring a big crowd. Our main goal was to stay focused," said Brochu.

The Jags fell to the 13th ranked Florida State Seminoles 5-2 in the second match of the day. The USA duo of Bartsch and Kuehne fell to the 33rd ranked pair Vahid Mirzadeh and Connor Smith 8-3 at the No. 1 doubles spot. At the No.2 and No. 3 positions the Jaguar tandems of Viel and Bocaert and Kruger and Seur lost to their Seminole counterparts 8-1.

"We played shy tennis in doubles," said Brochu. "We just let them take off and we weren't able to catch up.

"We met before singles play and talked about staying positive and cheering even when we're down."

After dropping the opening singles point, the Jaguars got on the board when freshman Alexandre Bernard beat FSU's Anderson Reed in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. Viel picked up the second South Alabama point by defeating No. 23 Clint Bowles 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 at the No. 2 spot.

"The highlight of the day was Lucas Viel's win over Clint Bowles," said Brochu. "In the three years that I've been at South Alabama we've never beat Clint Bowles. Beating him in straight sets was a great accomplishment for Lucas. He was very loud and confident, and he was able to stick with his game plan giving him the win in the end."

At No. 1 singles Bocaert fell to 27th ranked Jean-Yves Aubone 6-4, 6-4. Bartsch lost his match to FSU's Mirzadeh 6-2, 6-1 at No. 3. South Alabama's Kruger dropped his match to Smith 7-6, 6-3. At the No. 6 position Kuehne fell to Andres Bucaro 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.

"The guys really believed they could beat Florida State. FSU being 13th in the nation really gives us confidence. We stayed with them all day and really could've taken the win.

"I was very happy with the play of both newcomers today," Brochu said about Bernard and Seur. "I'm very excited about them joining the team and winning their first collegiate matches. They show a lot of potential."

The Jags return to action Feb. 1 when they host Nicholls at 2 p.m. at the Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts on the USA campus.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251)461-1USA(1872).

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