Complete Results

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Despite taking an early lead, the University of South Alabama men's tennis team fell 4-1 to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday at the Thomas J. Henry Tennis Center.

The Islanders, ranked No. 69 in the nation, improved to 9-3 overall, while the 60th-ranked Jaguars dropped to 8-5 in their spring campaign.

"Today was a great battle," said USA head coach Nick Brochu. "We fought for more than 3 hours in the hot sun."

Kevin Bettendroffer and Guillaume Rauseo put TAMCC on the board with an 8-4 win over junior Tim Srkala (Brno, Czech Republic) and freshman Olivier Gingras (Quebec City, Quebec, Canada) at No. 2. The Jags responded with wins at Nos. 1 and 3 to earn the doubles point.

Senior Daniel Leitner (Niederfischbach, Germany) and junior Gerhard Gruindelingh (Pretoria, South Africa), ranked No. 61 in doubles, defeated Peter Nagy and Arthur Bedel at the No. 1 spot. Junior Juan Troglia (Mendoza, Argentina) and sophomore Tuki Jacobs (Windhoek, Namibia) followed with an 8-6 victory on court No. 3.

"We had a great start winning a long doubles point," said Brochu. "Our No. 1 didn't disappoint by pulling out a big win again. The new pair of Juan and Tuki responded well by clinching the doubles point for us."

In singles action, the Islanders took two matches in straight sets and two matches in three sets to knock off the Jaguars. Ricardo Mayagoitia dropped Gruindelingh 6-1, 6-4 in the No. 3 flight, while Rauseo topped Troglia 6-1, 6-2 at No. 4.

"Corpus Christi had a strong start in singles," said Brochu. "I think some of us were surprised by how aggressively they played. We got down a break on almost all the courts, but we fought back and pushed the match to three sets on two courts."

Srkala fell 6-7 (6-8), 6-1, 6-1 to Bettendroffer in the No. 2 position, while 73rd-ranked Nagy edged No. 75 Leitner 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) at the No. 1 spot.

"We need to work harder at first, so we don't have to play from behind," said Brochu. "The same thing happened last time against North Florida. We fight back and never quit, but against ranked teams it's not easy to come back and win on multiple singles courts."

South Alabama is back in action Sunday as they head to San Antonio to take on UTSA at 11 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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