Complete Results
MOBILE, Ala. – Troy took the doubles point and three singles matches to defeat the University of South Alabama men's tennis team 4-3 on Thursday afternoon at the Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts.
The Trojans improved to 11-5 and snapped the Jaguars' six-match win streak. South Alabama, ranked No. 47 in the nation, dropped to 6-3.
"Troy played really hard," said USA head coach Nick Brochu. "They deserve the win, but I'm very disappointed with our team. We've really been talking about needing us all to show up at the same time, but today that was not the case. We had some guys who stepped up and played awesome. Then we had some guys who played shy tennis, were intimidated by the opponents and didn't put up a fight."
After securing the doubles point, Andy Lau and Giovani Samaha gave the Trojans a 3-0 lead with wins at Nos. 3 and 6, repectively. Lau topped senior Manuel Belda (Posadas, Misiones, Argentina) 6-4, 6-1 and Samaha defeated freshman Olivier Gingras (Quebec City, Quebec, Canada) 6-3, 6-2.
Senior and 81st-ranked Daniel Leitner (Niederfischbach, Germany) picked up the first point for USA with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Hassan Ndayishimye at the No. 2 spot.
With the match at 3-1, Troy's Pablo Moreno edged sophomore Tuki Jacobs (Windhoek, Namibia) 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 on court 4 to clinch the win for the Trojans.
Junior Tim Srkala (Brno, Czech Republic) topped Gabriel Dias 6-3, 7-5 at No. 1, and junior Gerhard Gruindelingh (Pretoria, South Africa) outlasted Daniel Bustamante 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, (10-4) in the No. 6 flight.
In doubles action, Ndayishimye and Dias got the Trojans on the board when they downed Belda and junior Juan Troglia (Mendoza, Argentina) 6-0 on the No. 2 court. Leitner and Gruindelingh, ranked No. 60, responded with a 6-3 win over Moreno and Lau at the No. 1 spot, but Samaha and Austin Racine edged Srkala and Gingras 7-6 (7-4) at No. 3 to take the point.
"Doubles has been our strength the entire season," said Brochu. "Today, we used combinations that have worked really well for us in the past, but Nos. 2 and 3 just weren't there. We made way too many mistakes. We have a lot of work to do, and fortunately it is still early in the season."
South Alabama is back in action Monday, March 2 as they travel to Tallahassee, Fla. to take on Florida A&M.
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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