STANFORD, Calif. – The University of South Alabama doubles tandem of Lucas Viel (Boussy-Saint-Antoine, France) and Romain Bocaert (Lille, France) fell to Connor Smith and Vahid Mirzadeh of Florida State in round one of the 2011 NCAA Men’s Tennis Doubles Championship.

The 13th-ranked FSU duo topped the Jags 6-4, 6-4 in a back-and-forth match Thursday at the Taube Family Tennis center.

“A couple of things happened,” said USA head coach Nick Brochu. “One of the things we needed to do was to have an aggressive start, which we didn’t at all, but they had a slow start too. If a team has a slow start and you can take an early lead you’re good. The match started with four breaks which is unusual in doubles. We were not aggressive at the net today. We made some key mistakes at key times. That really cost us the match. These two guys haven’t played together since the conference tournament. The other guys have been playing together continuously. I think that month break hurt us a little bit.

“They’re one of the top 32 teams in the nation," said Brochu. "We worked really hard throughout the season so we can’t be disappointed. Lucas finished his college season at the NCAA tournament, which is awesome. I’m so proud of those guys.”

Information about the 2011 NCAA Division I men’s tennis championships can be found at www.gostanford.com.

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