STARKVILLE, Miss. – No. 51 Loic Cloes and Clement Marzol upset the nation's No. 1 doubles pairing, but the University of South Alabama Men's tennis team's (15-10) season came to a close with a 4-0 loss to seventh-ranked Mississippi State Saturday at Starkville in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs were the sixth seed in the tournament.
DOUBLES
- Santiago di Loreto and Max Lapraille dropped the opening decision 6-0 to Florian Broska and Trevor Foshey 6-0 on court 3.
- At court 1, No. 51 Loic Cloes and Clement Marzol upset the best doubles pairing in the country No. 1 Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic 6-2.
- Sacha Modica and Olivier Gingras fell to No. 38 Niclas Braun and Giovanni Oradini 6-3 as MSU took the doubles point on court 2.
SINGLES
- Lucas Gonzalez fell 6-2, 6-3 to Braun at No. 4.
- At No. 6, Lapraille dropped a 6-2, 6-4 decision to Foshey on court 6.
- On court 2, Cloes fell to No. 23 Oradini 6-3, 6-4 as MSU clinched the match.
- Modica took the first set against No. 84 Rakic 6-4 on court and was down 3-4 in the second set when the match went unfinished.
- At No. 5, Gingras took the opening set 7-6 (7-3), but was down 1-3 in the second to Broska when the match ended.
- Marzol lost the first set to No. 2 Borges. However, he was tied 4-4 in second as the match went unfinished.
NOTES
- Cloes' loss was just his second duals this season and has a 21-2 record in single duals.
- The program's NCAA Tournament record is 7-12.
- Cloes and Marzol picked up their third win over nationally ranked doubles pairings this season.
- Lapraille had a four-match win streak in singles coming into today's contest.
- Modica had a 13-3 singles record in his first season with the Jags, with two wins coming at the No. 2 position.
- Gingras and Gonzalez concluded their South careers with 12 and 11 wins, respectively.
THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Nick Brochu
On today's matchup: "We can't play a game that we are not used to. We can't try to overplay. We just had to be ourselves, which was the key to the match. At the end of the day, if we play our style and we do it to 100 percent, if we win, we win; if we lose, we lose. Our goal was to put ourselves in a position to win, which is what you are supposed to do, and play the game style that serves you the entire year. Mississippi State played great, but there's no team in the country that is unbeatable. We were winning on two courts, and we were not doing anything special. We were just playing our game, and Mississippi State is a deep team. They are very strong, and playing at home. They had the crowd going and the atmosphere was great. My guys loved it. I think we walk out of here no regrets, with a great win yesterday. Today was just a very good battle and great tennis."
Jr. Sacha Modica
On going into singles play after losing the doubles point: "We knew they (Mississippi State) were good. Our number one (doubles) had an amazing victory. It was insane. We were trying to fight and stay in it as long as we could. We kind of figured out at 5-2 that we weren't going to win the match. We tried to stay on the court as long as possible to at least give them a chance to win their match. After that, we took five to 10 minutes and tried to regroup and be positive to go out there and do the best that we could in singles."
UP NEXT
The Jags regular season concluded with today's loss. However, Loic Cloes and Clement Marzol will continue to play when they go to the NCAA Men's Tennis Doubles Championships in Wake Forest, N.C., which are slated to begin on May 23.
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).
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: http://jaguarathleticfund.com/baselineclub
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