Complete Results
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss took both doubles matches and won two singles matches in straight sets to defeat the No. 53 University of South Alabama men’s tennis team 4-3 Thursday afternoon at the USM Tennis Courts.
The Golden Eagles add to their three-match win streak to improve to 7-2. South Alabama drops to 2-4.
“I have to give credit to Southern Miss,” said USA head coach Nick Brochu. “They really fought hard and they were more hungry than us. They had a crowd behind them and they had a lot of energy.”
USM’s Matt Frost and Andrew Goodwin got on the board at No. 1 with an 8-4 win over sophomore Daniel Leitner (Niederfischbach, Germany) and freshman Juan Troglia (Mendoza, Argentina). The Golden Eagles’ combo of Paulo Alvarado and Juan Escobar finished off the doubles point with an 8-4 victory over senior Cody Hall (Albuquerque, N.M.) and freshman Gerhard Gruindelingh (Pretoria, South Africa) at No. 3.
“Doubles was bad for us today,” said Brochu. “It was a big point for us to lose. We were passive and slow.”
Southern Miss claimed the first two singles points putting them up 3-0 over the Jaguars. Benjamin Feldmann topped Gruindelingh 6-2, 6-1 in the No. 3 flight, while Troglia fell 6-3, 6-2 to Alvarado at No. 4.
Leitner put South Alabama on the board with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Goodwin at the No. 1 spot, but Frost secured the match for USM after edging senior Alex Bernard (Soisy Sur Seine, France) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 on the No. 2 court.
“Some of our guys need to become better fighters,” said Brochu.”We can’t accept to lose just because we have a bad day.”
Sophomore Blake Gregor (Griffith, New South Wales, Australia) outlasted Brad Marriott 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 at No. 5 and junior Shayann Vaezzadeh (Bavent, France) accounted for the Jaguars’ last point of the day with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Vasco Valverde.
“Today was extremely disappointing,” said Brochu. “We need to go back on the court and practice harder. We have a lot of tennis to be played this season.”
USA will be back in action Friday Feb. 22 when they travel to Atlanta, Ga. to take on Georgia State at 1 p.m. CST.
