Southern Miss
UAB
Men's Tennis Team Defeats UAB 4-2
3/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss men's tennis team snapped a nine-match losing streak against UAB, posting a 4-2 victory over the visiting Blazers Friday morning at the USM Tennis Courts.
The Golden Eagles improved to 13-5 overall while UAB dropped to 5-6.
"Our team came out ready to compete to pull off a good 4-2 win against UAB which was the first since 1998," head coach Zubin Engineer said. "The doubles combinations worked out well and our teams played solid. The singles was a good contest and full credit to our senior Brad Marriott who clinched the match for us. Brad is having the best season in his final year hitting freely and competing well. It was good to see every member on this team rises to the occasion and finds ways to compete and win."
Southern Miss won the doubles point in taking a 1-0 lead. Daniel Merker and Tarun Surat made quick work of Charles McCombs and Christopher Morris, posting a 6-1 win at No. 3. Chao-Yu Huang and Wen-Po Tseng followed shortly with a 6-2 win at No. 1 against Mitchell Martell and Luiz Felipe Pinto. Alex Doleac and Brad Marriott were on serve and leading Donovan McSeveney and Christian Coetzee 4-3 when the match was halted.
In the singles, the Golden Eagles took a 2-0 lead after Huang won his match by default. He was leading 2-0 when Coetzee suffered an injured.
The Blazers tied the match with a pair of wins. Surat dropped his match in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3 against Martell at No. 2. Tseng also lost in straight sets to McSeveney, 6-3, 6-2 on court 1.
The Golden Eagles took a 3-2 lead when Rakshit Rishi downed Pinto at No. 4 by the score of 6-4, 6-2. With matches going on the final two courts, the two teams battled back and forth. Merker claimed a 6-2 first set win over Oliver Poysti before Poysti tied the match with a 7-5 win, sending the match into a third set. In the meantime, Marriott held on for a 7-5 win in the first set against Stephan Vancurick. Marriott then clinched the match with a 6-4 in the second set. Merker was leading Poysti in the third set, 3-2, when the match was called.
Southern Miss is back in action on Mar. 22 when the Golden Eagles will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 1 p.m.
