LAFAYETTE, La. | South Alabama dropped their first conference match of the season on Sunday, falling to Louisiana 4-3 on the road.
Louisiana struck first in doubles with a win at number three, where William Ribero and Al Sanchez Gonzalez beat
Louis Delcour and
Juan Accossatto 6-4. Louisiana took a 1-0 lead after Vasil Dimitrov and Karlo Kajin beat
Jack Clements and
Maxime St-Hilaire 6-4.
In singles, South won on three courts, but it wasn't enough as the Ragin Cajuns clinched the win with three wins of their own.
Sebastien Collard evened the score at 1-1 with a win at number one, beating Al Sanchez Gonzalez 6-3, 6-2.
South then took a 2-1 lead after a win from senior
Louis Delcour, getting a comeback win over Alejo Ferrer Chueca, winning 3-6, 6-1, 6-0.
The Ragin Cajuns evened the score at 2-2 with a win from William Ribero at number six, beating South's
Javier Montoya 7-5, 6-2. Louisiana then took a 3-2 lead with a win at number five, where Calin Postea beat
Martin Bugaj 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
Louisiana clinched the match after a win at number four, with Vasil Dimitrov beating
Jack Clements 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-3.
South got one more win on the day from sophomore
Maxime St-Hilaire, beating Karlo Kajin 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
South (10-7, 3-1) returns home next weekend to host Troy Saturday at 2 p.m.
Match Results
March 26, 2023
11 am – Lafayette, La.
Singles
1.
Sebastien Collard (USA) def. Sanchez Gonzalez, Al (LA) 6-3, 6-2
2.
Maxime St-Hilaire (USA) def. Kajin, Karlo (LA) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
3.
Louis Delcour (USA) def. Ferrer Chueca, Alejo (LA) 3-6, 6-1, 6-0
4. Dimitrov, Vasil (LA) def.
Jack Clements (USA) 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-3
5. Postea, Calin (LA) def.
Martin Bugaj (USA) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3
6. Ribero, William (LA) def.
Javier Montoya (USA) 7-5, 6-2
Doubles
1. Dimitrov, Vasil/Kajin, Karlo (LA) def.
Jack Clements/
Maxime St-Hilaire (USA) 6-4
2. Dworak, Kacper/Ferrer Chueca, Alejo (LA) vs.
Martin Bugaj/
Sebastien Collard (USA) 5-4, unfinished
3. Ribero, William/Sanchez Gonzalez, Al (LA) def.
Louis Delcour/
Juan Accossatto (USA) 6-4
Quotable from coach Nick Brochu
"Very big match, a little bit of a rollercoaster. It's always been a tough battle against Louisiana, and we knew the doubles point would be a big one. It was a good fight in doubles, but the bottom line is Louisiana played better than us. We played a little soft and struggled to hold serves and that's not good enough against a good team. They just played better than us.
In singles, we knew we were very strong in singles in all positions, but overall, we choked – there's no other way to put it. If the score is two all with three remaining matches and in one match, you're up in the third set and you know you've got to win that one, then you're down to the last two on four and five and find us up a break in both matches. We are leading, have the break, all we have to do is hold and we completely freeze and choke. We lost this match. Don't want to take credit away from Louisiana, they fought really hard, but we lost this match. This hurts. This is not how we want to compete. There was too much criticism, too much talking between points. We need to go back and work. We just got outworked. Number six, nothing special, Louisiana just outworked us. There is no reason we lose this match when we are up 5-2 serving in a first set. We've got to go back to practice and practice harder. We had the lead on three of them and dropped it. That's a big problem. Very disappointing."
Up Next
South Alabama continues conference play next weekend, hosting Troy in Mobile.
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