University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Positive Fall Season Leads Men's Tennis to Spring Play
1/11/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- The Southern Miss Men's Tennis team prepares for its spring season after a big win to end fall action.
The Golden Eagles opened up fall play at home at the Southern Miss Invitational with seven wins on the opening day. The team exceled in singles action and seniors Wen-Po Tseng and Chao-Yu Huang started the season off with a 6-3, 6-2 and 6-4, 6-2 win respectively.
After a quick two-day tournament, the team traveled down to Lafayette for their next tournament action where Teeradon Tortrakul came off a 7-4 record his freshman year and took the top seeded singles player of the tournament to three sets and forced three tiebreakers but fell just short in the end. Jorman Reyes finished the final day in the consolations final at the Battle of the Bayou and beat his opponent 7-2, 6-2.
The team continued to show improvement during the season when both the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams made it to the ITA Southern Regional quarterfinals. Reyes continued right where he left off in Lafayette and made it to the fifth round of the tournament, the farthest of anyone on the Golden Eagles.
Reyes finished his freshman season with a 17-7 record and competed in the No. 3, 4 and 5 position in singles play. Reyes continues to improve in his sophomore season.
The Golden Eagles sent two players to the finals at the Big Easy tournament. Huang closed out the fall season by winning the tournament with an easy 6-2, 6-2 win in the finals. Mikhail Esipov finished second in his bracket.
The men open up spring play with five home matches beginning on Jan. 21. The Golden Eagles will also host UTSA, Rice and UAB for the C-USA showcase in early March. Along with road matches, the team will close out the season with three home matches against Nichols State, Alabama A&M and UAB before heading to Murfreesboro, Tenn., for C-USA Championships.
The team finished 16-8 last season and had a 9-3 record at home. The Golden Eagles finished the season winning eight out of the 10 final matches.
