Trojans Fall to South Alabama in Shootout

Sunday, April 3

Murfreesboro, TN

9:00 a.m.

Troy University

University of South Alabama

4/3/2011 10:08:25 PM | Tennis (M)

TROY dropped all three matches this weekend despite being competitive in all three

By: Travis Jarome

Box Score

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (TroyTrojans.com) – The Troy University men's tennis team dropped their third consecutive match in the Sun Belt Shootout on Sunday afternoon, falling to the University of South Alabama 4-3 in the seventh place match.

South Alabama jumped out early in the match, capturing the doubles point over their in-state rival by winning two of three matches. The number two team of Romain Bocaert and Hanno Bartsch defeated TROY's Anas Rouchdi and Jamie Eccleton, 8-6; while the number three team of Dauw Kruger and Lucas Viel defeated TROY's Sami Ghorbel and Niklas Jonsson, 8-2 to capture the point for the Jaguars.

From there, South Alabama needed just three singles victories to claim the win over TROY, but they did not come easy.

The Trojans won at number one when Anas Rouchdi claimed a 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 victory over Romain Bocaert while at number three, Branko Weber continued his hot play with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over South Alabama's Christian Kuehne. The final TROY victory came at number six where Mansingh Athare defeated South Alabama's Parker Allen 6-0, 6-4 to tie the match at 3-all.

The Trojans kept fighting to stay in the match, as senior Mario Rolemberg sent his match to third set against Hanno Bartsch before falling 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.

“The conference is wide open this year,” Troy head coach Eric Hayes said. “There is not a dominant team in the field like there has been in the past. Maybe if we get kicked in the face enough times, all eight players might learn how to compete and what it takes to become a champion.”

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