Complete Results

NEW ORLEANS – The University of South Alabama men's tennis team got off to a dominating start at the Sun Belt Championship with a 4-0 win over No. 3 seed Georgia State on Saturday at the City Park Tennis Center.

The 71st-ranked Jaguars advance to the finals for the third time in four years in hopes of winning a Sun Belt Championship for the first time since 2008. USA owns an 18-7 record in its spring campaign. The Panthers ended their season at 11-14.

The second-seeded Jaguars will take on No. 1 seed Louisiana-Lafayette tomorrow at 2 p.m.

"The final will be exciting," said USA head coach Nick Brochu. "We played Louisiana-Lafayette in March, and we won. Our guys are confident and looking forward to the match up tomorrow. It is great to see both the women's and men's teams in the final. We cheer each other up and hope to bring back two SBC titles."

South Alabama swept doubles and took three straight singles matches to extend its win streak to four. Junior Daniel Leitner (Niederfischbach, Germany) and sophomore Gerhard Gruindelingh (Pretoria, South Africa) are now 6-1 at No. 2 with an 8-2 win over Eric Baum and Valentin Horvat. Senior Shayann Vaezzadeh (Bavent, France) and freshman Tuki Jacobs (Windhoek, Namibia) clinched the point after topping Sofiane Chevallier and Felipe Jaworski 8-5 on the No. 3 court.

"We played great today," said Brochu. "Our three doubles teams were so solid and aggressive. We knew that the doubles point was crucial against Georgia State. That was the difference last year when we played them in the semifinal. We went into singles with great momentum."

Leitner gave USA a 2-0 lead when he downed Robert Schulze 6-2, 6-0 at the No. 1 spot. Sophomore Juan Troglia (Mendoza, Argentina) picked up his sixth straight win when he dropped Horvat 6-2, 6-2 in the No. 6 flight.

"Daniel and Juan played great and gave us two quick singles points," said Brochu. "We won the first sets at Nos. 3 and 4, but I have to give credit to Georgia State for coming back and winning both second sets."

Gruindelingh took the first set over Baum but dropped the second set and rallied back to win 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 at No. 4 to secure the win for South Alabama.

"Gerhard came up big and cruised through the third set to clinch the win for us," said Brochu. "He remained so calm and confident, even after dropping the second set."

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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