BIRMINGHAM, Ala. | After a three and a half hour battle, South Alabama came out on top, beating the UAB Blazers 4-3 Saturday afternoon.
UAB struck first, taking an early doubles lead with a win at number one, with Michal Lusovsky and Georgios Nouchakis beating the Jaguar duo of
Jack Clements and
Maxime St-Hilaire 6-4. The Blazers claimed the doubles point with a win at number three, where
Martin Bugaj and
Juan Accossatto fell to Parker Bradbary and Roman Postolka of UAB 6-3.
With the Blazers up 1-0, attention turned to singles, where South Alabama attempted to even the score with the Blazers, but UAB extend their lead to 2-0 with a win at number six, with Noah Malige beating
Juan Accossatto 7-5, 6-3.
The Jags evened the score at 2-2 with back-to-back wins on courts three and one, with Maxime-St Hilaire beating Vojtech Podzemny 7-5, 6-1 and then #123 Sebastien Collard defeating Roman Postolka 6-4, 7-5.
With the score tied at 2 and three courts remaining, UAB took the lead again with a win from Michal Lusovsky at number two, beating
Jack Clements in a back-and-forth three set tiebreaker, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (2).
The Jags even the score again, this time at 3-3, with a comeback win from
Javier Montoya at number five, beating Georgios Nouchakis 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
Attention then turned to the battle on court four, where
Martin Bugaj came out victorious, winning 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 over Carlos Gimenez Perez, clinching the win for South.
South stays on the road next weekend, traveling to Tallahassee for a match against Florida State on Friday at 4 p.m.
Match Results
February 4, 2023
11:30 am – Birmingham, Ala.
Singles
1. Sebastien Collard (USA) def. Roman Postolka (UAB) 6-4, 7-5
2. Michal Lusovsky (UAB) def.
Jack Clements (USA) 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (2)
3.
Maxime St-Hilaire (USA) def. Vojtech Podzemny (UAB) 7-5, 6-1
4.
Martin Bugaj (USA) def. Carlos Gimenez Perez (UAB) 7-5, 3-6, 6-4
5.
Javier Montoya (USA) def. Georgios Nouchakis (UAB) 6-2, 3-6, 7-5
6. Noah Malige (UAB) def.
Juan Accossatto (USA) 7-5, 6-3
Doubles
1. Michal Lusovsky/Georgios Nouchakis (UAB) def.
Jack Clements/
Maxime St-Hilaire (USA) 6-4
2. Noah Malige/Nikola Puric (UAB) vs Sebastien Collard/
Steyn Dippenaar (USA) 5-5, unfinished
3. Parker Bradbary/Roman Postolka (UAB) def.
Martin Bugaj/
Juan Accossatto (USA) 6-3
Quotable from coach Nick Brochu
"It turned out to be a great battle. We are definitely happy, but at the same time, we made things harder for ourselves. There were a lot of positive but also a lot of negative. We did not play good doubles. I believe we should have won the doubles point but just played soft. We've got to come prepared. We played soft doubles and UAB saw that and took the opportunity to go up 1-0, yes, it's just one point, but they had all the momentum. We did not play up to expectations in doubles.
In singles, I am very happy, but we still have some guys who need to go out there and fight and show us some competitive spirit. We still have some guys who play shy tennis and that's unacceptable. We are a very talented team, we have good depth. We have eight players who are capable of winning in the top six, and today, we had some guys who didn't deliver.
The positives are we have guys like
Martin Bugaj, who is showing some great leadership. You can see he has the experience and wants it. He played some very disciple and strategic doubles, and I am very proud of him. Javier was down a break in the third and fought back, his competitive spirit won the match for him today. He was playing a good opponent and he refused to lose. It was great. We've got guys who are firing on all cylinders, but we also have guys who need to step up their game. Good teams accomplish great things if all players are playing at a high level, and we just aren't there yet."
Up Next
South Alabama travels to the Sunshine State next weekend for a match at Florida State.
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