ATLANTA – The University of South Alabama men's tennis team fell 4-0 at Georgia State on Sunday afternoon.
 
In doubles, Jack Clements and Louis Delcour came up short, dropping the match 7-5 on court one against the No. 74 ranked duo from Georgia State. Sébastien Collard and Maxime St-Hilaire tied things up with a win on court two. Georgia State clinched the doubles point by winning the tiebreaker on court three.
 
In singles, the Panthers took courts two, six and one to clinch the match. Clements, St-Hilaire and Javier Montoya were all in their third sets when the match was called.
 
Date: 3/20
Place: Peachtree City Tennis Center
Records: South Alabama 10-6, Georgia State 10-6
 
DOUBLES
1. No. 74 Roberts Grinvalds/Andrei Duarte (Georgia State) def. Collard/Delcour 7-5
2. Collard/St-Hilaire (USA) def. Harvey Maughan/Kevin Huynh (Georgia State) 7-6
3. Patrick Lazo/Diego Padilha (Georgia State) def. Martin Bugaj/Montoya (USA) 7-6
Order of Finish: (1,2,3)
 
SINGLES
1. Duarte (Georgia State) def. Collard (USA) 6-1, 7-6(8)
2. Grinvalds (Georgia State) def. Delcour (USA) 6-3, 6-3
3. Clements (USA) vs. Vazha Shubladze (Georgia State) 4-6, 6-3, UF
4. St-Hilaire (USA) vs. Huynh (Georgia State) 6-2, 2-6, 1-3, UF
5. Montoya (USA) vs. Maughan (Georgia State) 6-2, 3-6, 2-0, UF
6. Lazo (Georgia State) def. Bugaj (USA) 6-2, 7-5
Order of Finish: (2,6,1)
 
NOTES
- The Jags drop to 9-7 all-time versus Georgia State and 3-2 on the road in the series.
- South will host its first Sun Belt home match against Coastal Carolina on Friday. USA is 6-0 at home this season.
- Collard and St-Hilaire lead the team with 11 victories as a pair in doubles. The duo is 9-2 in doubles action this spring and have won six of their past seven matches playing at number two in doubles.
 
THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Nick Brochu
- On today's performance:
"It was a great battle. I think the overall score doesn't reflect how close this match was. The doubles point was probably the closest doubles match we have had all year. We had one match go 7-5 and the other two go 7-6. In doubles, I thought we played very well. It was windy but we battled. The only thing that was a little frustrating was that we were in position to win at No. 3 doubles. It's one thing when the other team beats you, it's more frustrating when you make the mistakes and kind of hand them the win. Going into singles, we knew it was going to be a grind. It's that way every time we play them and they are extremely loud and make a really big effort to try to impose that way. I thought we started a little shy and it didn't go our way. They took the lead on four courts and I thought that they started really cheering and took the momentum to try to make it on all six courts. We did drop a lot of first sets. But, we had some guys that really fought back."
 
- On Montoya, St-Hilaire, Collard and Clements:
"Javy [Montoya] was probably the first one to get ahead in his match and that was a very good point for him. He was playing a veteran and with Javy being a freshman, reacted very well. Max [St-Hilaire] was in a battle as well. Max and Javy didn't get to finish their matches but I thought that they battled in the third sets and would have loved to see those finished. At No. 1 it was kind of surprising. The last time Seb [Collard] played Duarte, Seb had a perfect game to counter his attacks. Today, I felt like Duarte played well, kept the pressure on him nonstop and Seb had an off day and I think he was a little angry that things weren't going his way as it should. We have to work on this and not to let any frustration affect our game. Overall, I thought Jack [Clements] played a great match and was right there and he played the guy that was Georgia State's No. 1 last year. It was a big test for him. He dropped the first set because he played a few sloppy games and we talked about it and fixed it. He played the second set much more disciplined as far as strategy wise and forced a third set and would have liked to have seen that finished.
 
- On moving past this and getting ready for Coastal Carolina:
Overall, I thought it was a really close battle. They were just a little bit more confident on their shots and I think they put a little bit more pressure and it paid off for them. I think that was the only difference today and that goes with the rivalry that we have had with them over the years. I'm not happy about losing but let's hope that we can continue the tradition of whoever wins in the regular season, the other team wins the conference final. We've got work to do and we've got Coastal next weekend. After the match we had a team meeting and definitely the biggest challenge is how we bounce back. It's extremely hard to be perfect during the season and just a few teams in the nation go undefeated. It's just all about how you bounce back. We had a setback today that didn't go our way, so we have to bounce back quickly. Coastal is a good team and we get them at home and need to be ready and go hard at them."
 
UP NEXT
- The Jags returns home to take Coastal Carolina on Friday at 11 a.m. (CST) at the Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts.
 
—USA—