Troy University Athletics
Troy Takes Pair From UNO
4/10/2009 2:30:00 AM | Tennis
TROY, Ala. ? Both the men's and women's tennis teams defeated the University of New Orleans at the Lunsford Tennis Complex on Thursday. The matches were critical for seeding in next weekend's Sun Belt Championship.
WOMEN
Just two days after seeing their seven match winning streak snapped, the Trojans got to work on a new streak by defeating New Orleans 6-1.
The Trojans (11-6) started the match perfect, sweeping the doubles point, and never looked back.
At number one doubles the Trojan duo of Rawia Elsisi and Leonie Guijt defeated Kozue Matsumoto and Cassandra Escobar, 8-3. At number three, Annabelle Bares and Gabriella Viega won by the same score over Amber Garza and Kir Kemp, 8-3.
The Trojans finished out the point by winning at number two when Mirte De Bakker and Stephanie Vieira defeated Sofija Karalic and Ceara Howey, 8-5.
The Trojans built on their momentum throughout singles play, winning five of the six matches. Vieira pushed her singles winning streak to eight matches by defeating Howey at number five, 6-1, 6-3.
The Trojans also got straight set wins at numbers two, four, and six. First, Bares won at number four over Karalic, 6-2, 6-1. Fellow senior Caroline Joaunin defeated UNO's (9-8) Garza at number six, 7-5, 6-3. De Bakker finished off the straight set victories by winning at number two over Escobar, 6-1, 6-3.
The Trojans and Privateers split the two three set matches on the day. Elsisi won at number one over Kemp, 6-3, 2-6, 10-6.
The lone blemish on the day for the Trojans came in the final match of the day when UNO's Matsumoto defeated Troy's Guijt at number three, 2-6, 6-2, 10-6.
MEN
The Trojans won their second match in as many days, defeating the New Orleans Privateers, 4-3.
The Troy men also got off to great start by winning the doubles point. First at number three, Troy's Aurelien Tave and Xavier Masson defeated Vinay Kamaneni and Jose Gaspar, 8-3. The Trojans clinched the point when the duo of Benjamin Chomette and Bastian Maucher defeated UNO's Oliver Cuthill and Guilherme Rebolo, 8-6.
With the point already in hand, the Trojans nearly pulled off an upset at number one doubles. The duo of Mario Silva and Branko Weber pushed the 47th ranked doubles team in country, UNO's Ben Smith and Calvin Klemp, to a tiebreak. Unfortunately the Trojan pair fell in the end, 8-7.
As the match moved to singles, the Trojans (7-11) needed at least a split of the six matches, and that is exactly what they got. Troy's top three singles players lost their matches, but fortunately the bottom three picked them up and won their matches.
Singles play started when Chomette defeated Cuthill at number four in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1. The Privateers then closed the gap by taking the number three singles match when Troy's Masson fell to Smith, 6-3, 6-3.
The Trojans and the Privateers split the next two singles matches as well. Guilherme Sahadi defeated Abdelrahman Zaki at number six in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. Then, Kamaneni defeated the Trojans' Weber at number two, 6-3, 7-5.
With the Trojans in the lead 3-2, numbers one and five singles were moving to third sets.
At number one, Troy's Tave won the first set, but faltered in the second and third sets and lost to UNO's (12-7) Kemp, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.
As the 3-3 match moved into its fifth hour, all attention turned to Trojan sophomore Mario Silva and UNO junior Jose Gaspar. The two had already played a close first set in which Gaspar won 6-7. However, in the second set, Silva fought back and easily took the set 6-1.
Silva came up big in the clutch and won the third set in a tiebreak to give him a, 6-7, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), win and to give Troy a win.
The 4-3 decision gives the Trojans their second straight win in as many days.
Both the women and men will look to build on their momentum from Thursday when they both play host to Mercer University on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. The match will be held at the Lunsford Tennis Complex and admission is free.
