MALIBU, Calif. – After a rough first day, senior South Alabama men's tennis player Loïc Cloes bounced back with a straight-set win in his consolation round singles match on day two of the Oracle ITA Masters held at the Ralphs-Strauss Tennis Center on Pepperdine University's campus.

Tournament Name: Oracle ITA Masters
Host: Pepperdine / Malibu Racquet Club
Date: 9/26
Place: Malibu Racquet Club / Ralphs-Strauss Tennis Center (Malibu, Calif.)

SINGLES
- (14) Loïc Cloes (South Alabama) def. Max Benaim (Monmouth), 6-2, 6-0 – PEPP

(#) – Tournament seed
PEPP – Match played at Ralphs-Strauss Tennis Center on the Pepperdine University campus.

NOTES
- With the win, Cloes advances to the quarterfinal round of the men's consolation bracket where he will face Baylor's Sven Lah on Saturday who is seeded 11th in the tournament and ranked 44th by the ITA in its preseason singles rankings.

UP NEXT
- Along with Cloes' quarterfinal singles match at the Oracle ITA Masters on Saturday, the rest of the South Alabama men's tennis team will open up play at the Southern Miss Invitational in Hattiesburg, Miss., on Saturday with a round of doubles matches at 9 a.m., and two rounds of singles play set to start at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

THEY SAID IT
Head coach Nick Brochu
- On today's bounce-back performance by Cloes: "It was a complete turnaround for Loïc from yesterday's performance. We were able to fix everything that didn't work yesterday. Today we were able to control the pace of the match. Loïc was serving really well and passed about 26 out of her 34 serves making his first-serve percentage really high, which made his service game much easier. He didn't face one break point today. He was also able to be patient and wait for the right ball. As soon as he got the right ball, he just exploded on it and finished the point. Loïc knew when to put pressure on the opponent and when to just be steady. He managed his energy and emotion really well. Overall, it was just a great match to watch."
- On what to take from today's performance: " "Today, we learned a lot about how to take our time between points and focus on what we did well and repeat that. It was a good mental match today and much more mature tennis today against a good opponent. It's awesome to have days like this where you are able to bounce back from a poor performance and turn it around 180 degrees and perform like he did today. I'm very proud of him. "
- On tomorrow's opponent: "Now he will face a player from Baylor who is a very explosive player who was ranked top 5 in doubles. He has weapons on both sides, but at the same time Loïc has an amazing serve and a lot of fire-power. We are going to have to play our game and be very selective on our shots. It's going to be a high-level match and we're looking forward to it."

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