LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The University of South Alabama men's tennis team picked up its first win of the 2019 spring season this Sunday in a 4-3 victory over the Cal Poly Mustangs at the 2019 ITA Kickoff Weekend held at Marks Stadium in Los Angeles.
Maxime Lapraille earned the decisive victory over Alex Slater of Cal Poly on court five in three sets. After losing the first set, Lapraille came back and won the final two sets 6-2 getting the point and putting the Jags in the win column for 2019.
Coach Brochu and the Jags tried out something new this afternoon. Lapraille was added to the doubles lineup and paired with Sacha Modica. A pairing that worked out very well for the Jags, and for the pair themselves as they seemed to have a lot of energy on the court together. The Jags took the doubles point, and it proved crucial to the outcome of the match.
After the duo of Santiago di Loreto and Sam Serrano fell 6-0 to Cal Poly, Lapraille and Modica evened things up beating their opponents 6-4. It was down to the No. 16 ranked pair of Loic Cloes and Clement Marzol on court one, and the Jags took the game and the point.
Louis Delcour put the Jaguars on the board first in the singles round. Delcour beat his opponent 6-0 and earned his first win as a Jaguar. Serrano, Cloes, and Modica each lost their singles matchup, while Marzol and Lapraille won theirs. Marzol went down 2-6 in the first set and battled back to earn the point for his team winning the final two sets, 6-1 and 6-0.
DOUBLES
(1) #16 Cloes/Marzol (SA) def. Ortlip/Shenkirky (CP) - 6-4
(2) Lapraille/Modica (SA) def. Meinert/Noel (CP) - 6-4
(3) Bechard/Vardanyan (CP) def. di Loreto/Serrano (SA) - 6-0
SINGLES
(1) Josh Ortlip (CP) def. Sacha Modica (SA) - 7-5, 2-6, 6-4
(2) #48 Clement Marzol (SA) def. Dominic Bechard (CP) - 2-6, 6-1, 6-0
(3) Antoine Noel (CP) def. Loic Cloes (SA) - 6-3, 7-6 (7)
(4) Gary Vardanyan (CP) def. Samuel Serrano (SA) - 6-1, 6-2
(5) Maxime Lapraille (SA) def. Alex Stater (CP) - 3-6, 6-2, 6-2*
(6) Louis Delcour (SA) def. Daly Meinert (CP) - 6-1, 6-1
Order of finish: 6, 4, 2, 3, 1, 5*
UP NEXT
South Alabama returns to Mobile for its home opener at Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts for a dual match with Xavier (La.) on Saturday Feb. 2. at 1 p.m.
QUOTES
Head Coach Nick Brochu
On the match: "What a way to finish the trip. It was maybe not our prettiest match, but we dug out a good win. And we had to dig really deep for that one. The day started well playing some solid doubles."
On singles: "But singles started really bad. We were losing on 5 of the 6 courts. We were not playing our best tennis. We had to come down really fight to get back in this match. It help a lot to have Louis winning quickly to give us a 2-0 lead. Clement was amazing in how he turned his match around to give us our 3rd point. Max was feeling the ball more and more and we worked on being more aggressive. He took over that match and never looked back. He was so solid. It shows that he's been working really hard at practice."
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. 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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