Men Lose Heartbreaker Late

The Ragin' Cajun men's tennis team nearly pulled off an upset in the wee hours of the night against No. 67 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Cajun Courts on Thursday night, and Friday morning.

However, they came up a few points short, falling 4-3 to the Islanders in a match that did not end until 1:30 a.m.

Due to circumstances, both the Cajun men and women were forced to play at the same time, causing the teams to have to split the court. Instead of starting out with doubles, they started with singles.

The Cajuns (1-5) Javier Pulgar lost his match to TAMCC's (1-4) Dimitry Novikov 7-6, 6-7, 6-0. Carlin Murray won his match 6-0, 6-4. Tomasz Kyrszkowski won his match 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 and Robert Voss lost his match 6-1, 6-4 to Nathan Robinson.

That left the score tied at 2-2 with Neil Schneider and Yanick Mandl left to play. Mandle forced his match to a third set and squeaked out a win 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 over Duje Janjic to give the Cajuns a 3-2 advantage.

One more singles win and they win the match and avoid doubles play.

Schneider took to the court against Alex Pavlov. Schneider won the first set 6-4. He nearly won the second set, but fell in the tie breaker 7-6. In the final set Schneider found himself down 5-2, but battled back to get within 5-4. However, he was unable to complete the comeback and Pavlov won the final set 6-4, forcing doubles play.

The doubles competition was just as exciting. In the No. 3 spot Kyryszkowski and Voss beat Maingot and Robinson 8-4. That put the Cajuns one doubles victory away from the win.

However, the teams of Novikov-Langford and Raguz-Janjic proved to much for Mandl-Murray and Schneider-Pulgar as both teams lost 9-7 in one of the tightest matches of the season.

"We let a ranked team off the hook at our place," head coach Mark Jeffrey said. "Corpus is ranked 67 in the nation and it was our match to win or lose."

The Cajuns have had many close losses this season. This was their third 4-3 loss of the year. They lost earlier to Wichita State 4-3, and also Nicholls State.

The Cajuns return to action on Friday as they take on Alcorn State at 2 p.m.

Tennis Match Results
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs Louisiana
Feb 17, 2010 at Lafayette, La.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4, Louisiana 3

Singles competition
1. Dmitry Novikov (AMCC) def. Pulgar, Javier (UL) 7-6, 6-7, 6-0
2. Krzyszkowski, Tomasz (UL) def. James Langford (AMCC) 4-6, 6-4, 6-0
3. Murray, Carlin (UL) def. Robert Raguz (AMCC) 6-0, 6-4
4. Mandl, Yanick (UL) def. Duje Janjic (AMCC) 6-4, 4-6, 7-5
5. Alex Pavlov (AMCC) def. Schneider, Neil (UL) 4-6, 7-6, 6-4
6. Nathan Robinson (AMCC) def. Voss, Robert (UL) 6-1, 6-4

Doubles competition
1. James Langford/Dmitry Novikov (AMCC) def. Murray, Carlin/Mandl, Yanick (UL) 9-7
2. Duje Janjic/Robert Raguz (AMCC) def. Schneider, Neil/Pulgar, Javier (UL) 9-7
3. Krzyszkowski, Tomasz/Voss, Robert (UL) def. Nathan Robinson/Andrew Maingot (AMCC) 8-4

--RaginCajuns--

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