MOBILE, Ala. – After taking control of the match early, South Alabama could not hold off Southern Miss' rally as the Golden Eagles defeated the Jaguars, 4-3, Saturday afternoon.
The setback dropped South to 6-8 for the season with a 1-2 mark in Sun Belt Conference play.
"It's been a while since I've seen a team start so strong and then the wheels just fell off completely," said head coach Nick Brochu. "We won the doubles point and then we went into singles and we were steamrolling. We won four first sets and looked like it was going to be a short day. I don't want to take any credit away from Southern Miss, but the amount of mistakes we made today was horrendous."
The Jags came out of the gates very strong with quick doubles victories to claim the doubles point.
Jack Clements and
Braden Hannig combined for a 6-3 victory while
Juan Accossatto and Harold van Raemdonck took care of business quickly on a score of 6-1. Rostislav Halfinger and
Javier Montoya also led 5-3 before their match went unfinished.
In singles play, van Raemdonck continued his dominant day by making quick work of Saheb Sodhi with a 6-1, 6-3 victory. Montoya then joined him as the other Jaguar win a singles victory on the day. Montoya won his opening set before dropping the second and having to fight back to win the third. After completing the comeback, he claimed his match 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
South will attempt to bounce back Sunday morning when Louisiana comes to town. First serve between the Jaguars and Ragin' Cajuns will take place at 10 a.m. CT.
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