Southern Miss
South Alabama
Men's Tennis Falls to South Alabama 4-3
3/29/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Southern Miss men's tennis team dropped a close match to South Alabama in the Middle Tennessee Shootout Saturday by the score of 4-3.
The Golden Eagles dropped to 12-6 while South Alabama improved to 10-7.
"Our team pulled off the doubles point and came very close in singles to lose 3-4," head coach Zubin Engineer said. "The team spirit, attitude and effort was very good."
Southern Miss captured the doubles point to start the match. Chao-Yu Huang and Wen-Po Tseng were the first to post a win with a 6-3 victory over No. 72 Daniel Leitner and G. Gruindelingh at No. 1. South Alabama evened the doubles with a 6-3 win when Manuel Belda and Tim Srkala topped Alex Doleac and Brad Marriott at No. 2. Daniel Merker and Tarun Surat then clinched the point at No. 3 against Tuki Jacobs and Olivier Gingras 6-4.
The Jaguars evened the match at 1-1 when Srkala defeated Tseng 6-2, 6-3 in the No. 2 slot. Surat fell to No. 98 ranked Leitner in a three-set affair, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. Jacobs put South Alabama ahead 3-1 with a 6-4, 6-3 win against Marriott at No. 4.
Southern Miss added a pair of points at No. 3 and No. 5 when Huang defeated Juan Troglia 6-3, 7-6 (4). Merker then evened the match with his 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 5 against Manuel.
The final point came down to the battle at No. 6. USA's Gruindelingh took the first set 6-2 before Merker battled in the second set tie breaker for a 7-6 (5) win. Gruindelingh then took the final set 6-4.
Southern Miss will play Middle Tennessee for third place Sunday.
