MOBILE, Ala.  – The University of South Alabama men's tennis team defeated No. 50 FAU 4-3 on Saturday afternoon at the Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts.
 
FAU opened up doubles with a win on court one. Javier Montoya and Martin Bugaj tied things up with a 7-5 win at No. 3 and the Owls clinched the doubles point with a tiebreaker victory on court two.
 
In singles, FAU pushed the lead to 2-0 with a win at No. 1. On court four, Maxime St-Hilaire answered with a two-set victory to cut the lead to 2-1.  At the No. 3 position, Louis Delcour tied the match at 2-2 with a three-set win. After FAU added a point on court two, Javier Montoya responded with a win on court six in three sets to tie the match at 3-3. Martin Bugaj fought back after losing the first set in a tiebreaker to clinch the match for South Alabama with a three-set win on court five.
 
Date: 4/9
Place: Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts
Records: South Alabama 15-6 (4-1), FAU 16-5
 
DOUBLES
1. Kevin Huempfner/Filip Krolo (FAU) def. Jack Clements/Delcour (USA) 6-4
2. Carles Sarrio/Hunter Robbins (FAU) def. Sébastien Collard/St-Hilaire (USA) 7-6(4)
3. Bugaj/Montoya (USA) def. Alvaro Fernandez Horta/Finn Stodder (FAU) 7-5
Order of Finish: (1,3,2)
 
SINGLES
1. Sarrio (FAU) def. Collard (USA) 6-4, 6-2
2. Huempfner (FAU) def. Clements (USA) 3-6, 7-6(6), 7-5
3. Delcour (USA) def. Fernandez Horta (FAU) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
4. St-Hilaire (USA) def. Nicolas Jadoun (FAU) 7-6(9), 6-4
5. Bugaj (USA) def. Gerard Escandell (FAU) 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-4
6. Montoya (USA) def. Stodder (FAU) 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3
Order of Finish: (1,4,3,2,6,5)
 
NOTES
- USA now leads FAU 7-5 in the all-time series.
- The Jags went a perfect 11-0 at home this season.
- With the victory, South is currently on a five-game winning streak.
- St-Hilaire wrapped up the regular season with 21 wins in singles competition.
- Delcour finished the regular season with a team-high 24 wins in singles and will be entering the conference tournament on a five-match winning streak.
- Montoya improved to 9-6 in singles this spring.
- Bugaj added his sixth win of the spring in singles.
 
THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Nick Brochu
- On today's performance:
"We definitely showed a lot of character today. Today was so up and down. At one point, I wondered if we were going to be able to get to the finish line. We had so many opportunities in doubles. Doubles was extremely frustrating because we had a really close call on court one that went FAU's way, which would have tied the match. On court two, we had three match points and couldn't close it. We were up and down breaks. It was just up and down. It was almost like it wasn't meant to be. Then we went into singles and win four first sets. But, we lost a couple of sets 7-6. We were right there but couldn't close it. What was frustrating about today, wasn't that we couldn't close the match, it was when we got to the big points we would make a mistake. I was wondering how many chances we were going to get. But, to be honest, we got as many chances as we needed. Martin [Bugaj] saved three match points to come back and win the second set. In the third set, Martin sprained his ankle at the end and won the last three points on one leg. That's adrenaline, his teammates screaming and supporting him and getting him to the finish line. What a great team victory today. Javy [Montoya] had zero legs because he was cramping in both legs. He won the last game cramping and had to take a medical timeout. At one point, I was wondering what else could happen to us. Everything that could have gone wrong today, happened. Louis [Delcour] was also cramping in his third set. We had five matches go three sets and we played for four hours. This is a marathon, but at the same time, I'm not surprised. We have been playing FAU every year for the past five years. Every year it's a close match. It's 4-3 or 4-2 every time we play and it's always a marathon. FAU is a great team and they've had an amazing year. I think this could be our best win and effort and team wise, this is our best win also. Even the guys that lost today, they went out and started cheering for their teammates.
 
- On the conference tournament:
We have a lot of recovery to do before the conference tournament. We are going to be the No. 2 seed and this was a good way to close off this season. We went undefeated this season at home and we didn't have an easy schedule. I'm very proud of our guys. It's been a rough year and we are very young, but we are good. We just had to put it all together. We finished the season winning five matches in a row. We are peaking at the right time. We need to rest and get ready. The conference tournament is going to be really tough because no match is going to be easy. I'm just really proud of my guys today."
 
UP NEXT
- The Jags will take on Georgia Southern in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament on Thursday at 1 p.m. (CST).
 
—USA—