University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss
South Alabama
Men's Tennis Team Falls to South Alabama 5-2
4/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - The Southern Miss men's tennis team dropped its final match of the regular season, falling to South Alabama 5-2 at the USM Tennis Courts.
The Golden Eagles fell to 15-8 on the season while South Alabama improved to 14-8.
"The team gave it their best and competed hard but lost a good match to South Alabama," head coach Zubin Engineer said. "The two seniors performed well. Brad Marriott competed great to win his final home match. Chao Yu won too and has been our most consistent performer on the team winning solid at No 3. We are ready for the conference championship next week."
Southern Miss struck first in the double with a win at No. 3 as Daniel Merker and Tarun Surat defeated Tuki Jacobs and Juan Troglia 6-0. South Alabama evened the doubles with a win at No. 2 with Tim Srkala and Olivier Girgras defeated Alex Doleac and Brad Marriott 6-2. The Jaguars clinched the doubles' point with a 6-4 win at No. 1 as Chao-Yu Huang and Wen-Po Tseng fell to Daniel Leitner and Gerhard Gruindelingh.
Heading into singles play, South Alabama took a 2-0 lead with Leitner defeating Surat on court 1 in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. The Golden Eagles earned their first point when Huang topped Troglia at No. 3 by the scores of 6-3, 6-3.
The visitors won the next three matches at No. 2, No. 4 and No. 6 in clinching the match. Southern Miss added its final point as Marriott battled back from a set down to take the win. Girgras won the first set 7-5 before Marriott won the second set 6-4, then won the super tie-breaker in the third set 10-7 for the victory.
Southern Miss will travel to Norfolk, Va., for the Conference USA Championships, April 17-19.
