PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. — The University of South Alabama men's tennis team defeated the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, 4-0 on Saturday afternoon at the Peachtree City Tennis Center to move on to the Sun Belt Championships finals. 

The Jaguars got off to a fast start by taking the doubles point from the Chanticleers. The No. 68 ranked duo of Loic Cloes and Clement Marzol won, 6-1 on court one. Moments after that, Maxime Lapraille and Louis Delcour dispatched of their opponents with a 6-2 win on number three. 

Delcour got South Alabama off to a good start in singles with a 6-0, 6-0 win on court six. Marzol followed that up with a 6-3, 6-0 victory on number three. With the Jags up 3-0, Cloes beat his opponent 7-6 in a tiebreaker in the second set to secure the South win. 

The Jags improve to 17-6 on the season, and will appear in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament for the sixth straight season. 

DOUBLES
1. Cloes/Marzol (USA) def. Farria/Perrin (CCU), 6-1 
2. Modica/Serrano (USA) vs. Popov/Talic (CCU), 4-3, unfinished.  
3. Lapraille/Delcour (USA) def. Tanabe/Hrykkonen (CCU), 6-2
Order of Finish: (1,3)

SINGLES
1. Sacha Modica (USA) vs. Luiz Faria (CCU), 6-4, 5-4, unfinished. 
2. Loic Cloes (USA) def. Zac Talic (CCU), 6-0, 7-6 (7-1)    
3. Clement Marzol (USA) def. Pyry Hrykkonen (CCU), 6-3, 6-0 
4. Maxime Lapraille (USA) vs. Joel Popov (CCU), 4-6, 6-1, 1-0, unfinished. 
5. Sam Serrano (USA) vs. Gonzalo Achondo (CCU), 7-5, 5-2, unfinished. 
6. Louis Delcour (USA) def. Daiki Tanabe (CCU), 6-0, 6-0  
Order of Finish: (6, 3, 2)

NOTES
The men's semifinal match started one hour and 45 minutes after the scheduled start time. 

Sacha Modica and Sam Serrano were up 4-3 over their opponents on court two in the doubles point when Lapraille and Delcour clinched for the Jags. Doubles lasted just over 30 minutes. 

After winning the first set, Modica was up 5-4 in the second set on court one. His match went unfinished. Lapraille dropped the first set, 4-6, but roared back to win the second set 6-1, and was up 1-0 when the Jags clinched. Serrano was one game away from earning the win on court five when the match went final. 

This will be the third straight year that the Jags and Georgia State will meet in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament finals. South Alabama won their first Sun Belt title since 2008 with a 4-1 win over the Panthers last season. 

UP NEXT
South Alabama moves on to the final Sun Belt Conference Championships and will meet Georgia State Sunday afternoon at the Peachtree City Tennis Center. First Serve is set for 12 pm central. 

QUOTES
Head Coach Nick Brochu
On the win: "Well it's a 4-0 victory, but it was not that easy. Coastal is a good program, a rising program. They went from having the eight seed last year to the number three this season. Great season and great coach. He was the coach of the year, and they also had the player of the year. Good team, but we played some big tennis. That's why the final was 4-0, but it was a battle." 

On Doubles: "Doubles was a key point today. We knew that Coastal was counting on the point. We took that and took the momentum. From that point on we never looked back. We knew that we were stronger on some positions. We knew that if we took the 1-0 lead, we could extend it to 3-0 really fast. After that we knew it was a big uphill battle for them, and after that we just closed it out. At number two, Coastal made a huge comeback; it looked like we were cruising on that court. But Loic has experience, he has been in those positions, he was the one who clinched last year." 

On Marzol and Cloes in singles: "This is a long tournament. We play three battles in three consecutive days. The key for these tournaments, if you want to win it, is to save energy where you can. Those guys won the first sets and kept the pressure on Coastal. As soon as you get the break, you get loud. Any guy who is in a battle feels less pressure. Loic felt like everyone had his back, and he just closed it out." 

On Delcour's win: "Yeah that was impressive. Louis came in in January so we worked a lot on making him relaxed. He's playing for a team which is a new concept for him. The season has been kind of up and down for him, because he didn't want to disappoint his teammates. Felt maybe a little too much pressure than he should early on, but we worked on it. Today he did his job and took care of his opponent." 

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

—USA—