TULSA, Okla. – South Alabama men's tennis juniors Loic Cloes and Clement Marzol survived another nail-bitter to advance to the Saint Francis Health System Men's ITA All-American Championships doubles quarterfinal round. The pair of Jag student-athletes also advanced to the round of 16 in consolation singles.
 
Round Of 32 Doubles
The sixth-ranked pairing of Cloes and Marzol were pitted against Oklahoma State's Mathieu Scaglia and Matej Vocel. Cloes and Marzol survived a close first set taking it 7-6 (7-3). However, the Cowboys answered taking the second 6-1 to force a third set tiebreak.
 
In the tibreaker set, the South pairing stepped up and took it in dominating fashion, 10-4, to advance to the quarterfinals.
 
First Round Consolation Singles
No. 122 Marzol faced off against Texas A&M's Barnaby Smith. After dropping the first set to Smith, Marzol battled back to take the second 7-6 (7-4). In the third, Marzol took a pair of breakpoints and lead 4-0 when Smith retired from the match.
 
No. 83 Cloes took his match via walkover to advance to the next round.

THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Nick Brochu
On Marzol's match: "It was a strange match. Clement played good, but didn't have the usual spark in his footwork. He struggled with his serve and couldn't line up a few winning points to distance himself from his opponent. Halfway through the second set, we realized that his opponent was running out of gas. Clem is in great shape and we knew that if we went to three sets, Clem would have a big advantage. He worked hard to win the second set and then he took off until his opponent couldn't keep up. 
Winning a long battle when you don't play your best tennis helps the confidence. Clem knows he can rely on his good conditioning. "
 
On doubles: "Just like yesterday, we struggled serving. It was an up and down match. We started slow, and came back strong to win the first set. Then we made many crucial errors to quickly go down 5-0. We talked about playing the last games in the second set the way we want to play in the tiebreaker. We turned things around and it was clicking. Another nail biter win. Survive and advance!"
 
UP NEXT
Cloes and Marzol will face No. 44 Oliver Crawford and Andy Andrade of Florida in the quarterfinal round of doubles. The match is scheduled to not begin before 3 p.m.
 
In consolation singles, Marzol will take on No. 34 Ferran Calvo of Oklahoma, while Cloes will face Florida's No. 11 Johannes Ingildsen. Marzol's match is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., while Cloes is slated to start at 9:30 a.m.
 
—USA—