Results
MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama men’s tennis team improved their record to 5-2 after defeating Southern Miss 6-1 Sunday at the Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts.
The Jaguars rebound from a loss last Sunday to No. 59 New Mexico and drop the Golden Eagles to 5-3.
The South Alabama tandem of senior Romain Bocaert (Lille, France) and junior Alex Bernard (Soisy Sur Seine, France) set the tone for the match downing Matt Frost and Inaki Belloso 8-5 on the No. 1 court. In the No. 2 flight seniors Christian Kuehne (Morbach, Germany) and Hanno Bartsch (Pretoria, South Africa) clinched the doubles point with their 8-6 victory over Paulo Alvarado and Juan Escobar.
The freshman duo of Daniel Leitner (Niederfischbach, Germany) and Blake Gregor (Griffith, New South Wales, Australia) fell 9-8 (7-5) in the No. 3 spot to Andrew Goodwin and Michael Elortegui.
“We got off to a great start with Romain and Alex,” said USA head coach Nick Brochu. “Then Christian and Hanno were serving so well and got the break early. It was Daniel and Blake’s first time playing together. They played well individually, but as a team they had to work a little harder at playing together. Our goal was to take the doubles point from them and make sure that we went into singles with a little cushion. We also wanted to make sure that they had to really dig deep to beat us.”
Bocaert picked up a quick 6-2, 6-2 win over Frost at No. 1 singles followed by Bernard’s 6-4, 6-2 victory over Alvarado on the No. 2 court.
Leitner secured the match for South Alabama downing Escobar in straight sets 6-2, 7-5 in the No. 3 flight.
“I really liked Romain coming out like that and making a statement and pretty much crushing their No. 1,” said Brochu. “He put us on the board 2-0 early in the match. I thought Daniel played a great match. It’s always good to have our top few guys winning matches like that and they did tremendous today.”
Hall defeated Belloso on the No. 4 court 6-1, 7-5, while Kruger outlasted Jovan Zeljkovic 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 in the No. 5 flight. Goodwin picked up the only win for USM after taking the win over Gregor 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5).
“We beat Southern Miss last year, but we knew that they were rebuilding,” said Brochu. “I warned my guys all week that they were going to come hungry and they did. The rivalry with them is always big, but we made sure we didn’t give them one chance or opportunity. We played hard until the end and that was the key to winning today.”
The Jaguars return to action Mar. 2 when they travel to Corpus Christi, Texas for the H-E-B Invitational.
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).
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