NEW ORLEANS – The University of South Alabama No. 47 and second-seed men's tennis team (23-5) edged out No. 6 seed Georgia Southern (19-12) 4-3 on Saturday evening in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at the City Park/Pepsi Tennis Center.
 
The Jaguars advance to the conference tournament finals and will face No. 37 and first-seed Georgia State, who beat No. 4 seed Troy 4-1, on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. The match will be broadcasted on ESPN3. The Jags defeated Georgia State 6-1 at home earlier this season on Feb. 12th.
 
"Our belief in each other helped us gut out this tough win," said South Alabama head coach Nick Brochu. "We've said the whole season that you play for the guy next to you, not just only for you. Today was a great match with great team spirit and atmosphere provided by our fans that traveled down to see us play."
 
The Eagles took the doubles point to start the match. Senior Tuki Jacobs (Windhoek, Namibia) and sophomore Lucas Gonzalez (Chateauroux, France) fell 6-1 to Diego Finkelstein and Eddie Landin on court No. 2. Junior Olivier Gingras (Quebec City, Quebec, Candada) and senior Pierre Noyon (Oye-Plage, France) evened it up on court No. 3 with a 6-2 victory on court No. 3 over Artemie Amari and Stefano Di Aloy. Senior Juan Cruz Soria (San Juan, Argentina) and freshman Loic Cloes (Remicourt, Belgium) lost a tough match on court No. 1 7-6 (9-7) to Dani Casablancas and Christian Kerrigan.
 
"We were very disappointed we lost the doubles point," said Brochu. "We thought we had it, but we can't play the game of 'could of, would of, should of.' We talked about how we found ourselves in this same situation last year in the semifinals against Appalachian State, and we came out and won singles. This year we had to do the same."
 
Noyon claimed the first singles point for the Jags on court No. 6, defeating Amari 6-2, 6-2. Soria gave South Alabama the lead with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Landin on court No. 2, and No. 104 Jacobs then made the score 3-1 when he beat JC Alcala 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 on court No. 1.
 
Georgia Southern stormed back and eventually tied up the match with a pair of three-set wins. Casablancas topped Cloes 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-2 on court No. 4, and Finkelstein beat Gonzalez on court No. 5 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 6-4. It all came down to court No. 3, and Gingras outlasted Aloy for a 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-5 win that clinched the match for the Jags.
 
"It is so nice to see our three seniors and junior, the four oldest guys, to pull out four big wins for us," said Brochu. "Credit to Georgia Southern. I was impressed with its win yesterday over Texas-Arlington, but today was certainly something. They came out fighting. In singles we won first sets on all six courts, but they came back and won second sets on so many courts and made this a really close, 4-3 match. At the end it came down to their freshman who will be a big player for them down the road. They've pushed everyone in the conference tournament since joining the conference."
 
Join the Baseline Club, the tennis-specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Baseline Club go directly to support the South Alabama men's and women's tennis programs. For more information on how you can join visit:  jaguarathleticfund.com/baselineclub.
 
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).