University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Penn State
@RaginCajunsMT Wins Two Straight To Finish Weekend At Jerry Simmons Invite
1/27/2019 6:24:00 PM | Men's Tennis
BATON ROUGE, La. – The strong start to Louisiana Men's Tennis' (8-2) start to the 2019 season continued over the weekend of Jan. 26-27 at the Jerry Simmons Invitational, with the Ragin' Cajuns winning two out of its three matches, including winning back-to-back matches to wrap up the weekend at the Louisiana State Tennis Complex.
Louisiana's final two matches of the weekend were wins dominating wins over Nicholls State (4-0) and New Orleans (4-0), with the win over Nicholls State coming on Saturday, Jan. 26 and the victory against New Orleans coming on Sunday, Jan. 27. Louisiana's lone loss, a 4-3 decision against Penn State on Sat., Jan. 26, was a hard fought-match, that was decided in doubles, giving Louisiana a solid performance in all three matches that the Ragin' Cajuns played in.
HOW IT HAPPENED (vs. Penn State): The first match of the weekend, against Penn State, started with singles and Louisiana fell behind 3-0 rather quickly and Penn State sat one win away from easily dispatching Louisiana. But Penn State would not get a win in singles for the remainder of the match as the Ragin' Cajuns came storming back, starting with junior Elio Lago's tough straight set win at No. 3, over Penn State's Gabriel Nemeth, 7-6(8), 6-0.
Louisiana's next two wins were three-set battles, and senior Arthur Libaud, playing at No. 5, gave Louisiana's next win when he held off a comeback attempt from Penn State's Ben Lieb, coming away with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 victory. The score sat at 3-2, with Penn State still one win away from locking up victory, but junior Jamie Fraser completed his own comeback at No. 6, winning 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, over Alp Sentay to push the match to doubles.
Penn State would lock up the win in doubles, winning at No. 2 and No. 1 to hold off Louisiana's valiant comeback attempt, but the tempo for the weekend was set and Louisiana carried the momentum into its next two matches in the tournament.
HOW IT HAPPENED (vs. Nicholls State): The next match in the tournament for Louisiana was a matchup with in-state foe Nicholls State, and the action started with doubles. Freshmen Kacper Dworak and Jan Galka, playing at No. 1, got Louisiana's first win when they took down the Nicholls State pairing of Tobias Lentz and Néstor Giribet, 6-1.
Lago and freshman Marko Vujic quickly locked up Louisiana's 1-0 lead with a 6-3 win over the Nicholls State duo of Eduardo Marino and Moritz Borges. The match then moved into singles with Louisiana three wins away from victory.
Those three wins came quickly, starting with junior Pearse Dolan taking down Oleksandr Podgursky in straight sets at No. 1, 6-0, 6-1. Vujic snagged Louisiana's next win with his own straight set win at No. 5, taking down Borges, 6-1, 6-0.
The win was locked up for Louisiana at No. 2, when Galka knocked off Dylan Loru at No. 2, 6-3, 6-4, and the straight set win gave Louisiana a 4-0 victory and it moved the Ragin' Cajuns into the fifth-place match.
Louisiana takes a big win over Nicholls State to move into Sunday's match with New Orleans with a win under its belt at the Jerry Simmons Invitational.#GeauxCajuns ?? pic.twitter.com/dEWi3iEA3L
— Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns® Men's Tennis (@RaginCajunsMT) January 27, 2019
HOW IT HAPPENED (vs. New Orleans): For the second time this season, Louisiana faced off with New Orleans, and much like the first meeting between the two squads, Louisiana would come away with the 4-0 win. Louisiana's path to victory began in doubles, and despite Louisiana dropping the one of the three doubles matches, the Ragin' Cajuns would come away with the doubles point.
At No. 2, Galka and Dworak knocked off Johannes Klein and Samuel Armand, 6-2, to get the first win in doubles. After dropping the match at No. 3, it fell on Fraser and Libaud to lock up the point, and in a tiebreaking victory the Louisiana duo held off Mats Westkamp and Misha Fomenkov, 7-6(5), at No. 1 to give Louisiana a 1-0 lead heading into singles.
Fraser, who won three singles matches over the weekend, got Louisiana's first win in singles, taking down Odysseas Papaioannou in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2. At No. 4, Libaud locked up the next win with a straight set win over Nicolas Kramer, 6-3, 6-1.
The Ragin' Cajuns then finished off its second straight win of the weekend, when at No. 2 Lago took down Fomenkov in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. Lago's win gave Louisiana the 4-0 win and it gave the Ragin' Cajuns a great finish to a solid weekend.
Louisiana wraps up its weekend at the Jerry Simmons Invite with a win over New Orleans to finish the weekend with back-to-back wins! ??#GeauxCajuns ?? pic.twitter.com/4hasgBANql
— Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns® Men's Tennis (@RaginCajunsMT) January 27, 2019
UP NEXT FOR THE CAJUNS: Louisiana returns to Cajun Courts on Saturday, Feb. 9 with a matchup against Southern Miss and first serve is scheduled for noon.
FOLLOWING THE RAGIN' CAJUNS: Follow the Ragin' Cajuns on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (@RaginCajunsMT) to stay up-to-date with Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Men's Tennis.
- #GEAUXCAJUNS -
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1,4,3,5,6
Players Mentioned
