CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The University of South Alabama Men’s tennis team went 1-1 on the first day of competition at the HEB Classic Tournament of Champions in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Jaguars fell to No. 64 Western Michigan 4-2 to start the day and then picked up a win against Sun Belt Conference foe Louisiana-Lafayette 4-3.
"Losing to Western Michigan is one thing, but shooting ourselves in the foot and giving them the match because we play stupid tennis is extremely frustrating,” USA head coach Nick Brochu said. “Unfortunately, today's poor performance overshadows the great play of Lucas (Viel), Romain (Bocaert), and Dauw (Kruger).”
In doubles action the USA tandem of Lucas Viel and Hanno Bartsch picked up a quick win on the No. 1 court against the Broncos’ Michael Calderone and Zeyad Montasser 8-1 to start the day. At the No. 3 spot Alexandre Bernard and Dauw Kruger were edged by Brad Noel and Thomas Calderone 9-7, followed by Romain Bocaert and Christian Kuehne’s 8-6 loss to Western Michigan’s Kazuya Komada and Casey Cullen.
"We started very well in doubles, getting early breaks on all three courts, but we couldn't close it on No. 2 and No. 3,” said Brochu. “We gave them the doubles point.”
South Alabama’s Bernard kicked off singles play dropping his match to Simon Blomberg 6-0, 6-2 at the No. 4 flight. Viel followed with the first Jaguar point of the match defeating Calderone 6-3, 6-4 on the No. 1 court. USA’s only other point came at No. 6 when Kruger downed Noel in straight sets 6-0, 6-4.
“It is hard to win four singles matches against ranked teams,” said Brochu. “We made things hard on ourselves by giving away games and not playing smart."
South Alabama then came back to defeat ULL in the afternoon contest. All second matches of the day began with singles competition.
“It was a very long match and the guys had to dig deep to win this one,” Brochu said. “We started with singles and split the matches 3-3. The energy in doubles was incredible. We played some very aggressive tennis and we won."
In singles play, USA picked up wins at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 5 spots. On the No. 1 court Viel was victorious over the Ragin’ Cajuns’ Carlin Murray 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Sophomore Bocaert added another Jaguar point to the scoreboard when he beat Javier Pulgar 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 at the No. 2 position. Kruger also picked up a win over Neil Schneider 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in the No. 5 flight.
South Alabama defeated ULL at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots in doubles action to clinch the point and the victory. On the No. 2 court Bocaert and Kuehne downed ULL’s Pulgar and Schneider 8-5. The Jags’ Bernard and Kruger beat Tomasz Krzyszkowski and Alexander Rupertsson 8-6.
USA will continue tournament action Saturday at 9 a.m. against Middle Tennessee at the HEB Tennis Center on Texas A&M - Corpus Christi's 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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