Complete Results
MOBILE, Ala. - University of South Alabama sophomore Daniel Leitner (Niederfischbach, Germany) earned two victories, including a win at No. 1 singles to secure the match in the Jaguars’ 6-1 win over Nicholls State Thursday at the Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts.
USA improved to 7-7 overall, while NSU fell to 7-7 in their spring campaign.
“Today we had an ugly win,” said USA head coach Nick Brochu. “It was very disappointing because we didn’t have the energy that we should have. It seemed like we wanted to play, but we didn’t want to give 100 percent in energy and effort.”
Leitner teamed up with freshman Gerhard Gruindelingh (Pretoria, South Africa) to clinch the doubles point with an 8-6 win over Damian Despotovski and Roy Knight at the No. 1 spot. Leitner later won 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 over Dmitry Kozionov.
“Daniel really scraped his win out,” said Brochu. “At the change over we talked about how he was performing and that he needed to quit playing in the past and play in the present. He started the match poorly, but really stepped up at the end.”
Senior Cody Hall (Albuquerque, N.M.) and freshman Juan Troglia (Mendoza, Argentina) picked up the first win of the day with their 8-2 victory over Evan Karatzas and Nico Mertens at No. 3 doubles. Senior Alex Bernard (Soisy Sur Seine, France) and junior Shayann Vaezzadeh (Bavent, France) fell 8-5 to Kozionov and Jeoffrey Noblecourt on the No. 2 court.
“We almost lost the doubles point because of the lack of energy on the court,” said Brochu. “Court one woke up at the last second to win it for us.”
In singles action, Bernard downed Despotovski 6-2, 6-1 in the No. 2 flight. Mertens picked up the only point for the Colonels with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Gruindelingh at No. 5.
“Alex played against a very tough opponent,” said Brochu. “He just handled that match very easily. He played great tennis and got us on the board really early and that’s what we needed.”
Vaezzadeh outlasted Knight on the No. 4 court, giving the Jaguars a 3-1 lead. Troglia defeated Sidharth Sivakumar 6-0, 6-4 at the No. 5 spot. Hall ended the day with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Karatzas.
“We have one day of practice before we play Winthrop,” said Brochu. “We have to make sure that our energy is much better and what happened today doesn’t happen again.”
South Alabama returns to action Saturday morning at 10 a.m. against Winthrop.
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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