University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Georgia Southern
@RaginCajunsMT Holds Off Georgia Southern For First Conference Win
3/22/2019 7:54:00 PM | Men's Tennis
LAFAYETTE – In control from start-to-finish, Louisiana Men's Tennis (19-5, 1-0 SBC) held off a late charging Georgia Southern (12-6, 0-1 SBCC) side to come away with its first Sun Belt Conference win of the season, 5-2, in what was Louisiana's conference opening match.
The clinching point came at No. 4, when senior Arthur Libaud battled back to take his match in straight sets, while juniors Jamie Fraser and Elio Lago, along with freshman Jan Galka, each snagged wins at singles to power Louisiana to victory. For Libaud it was his third straight win and it improved his record in singles to 14-4, while Fraser extended his winning streak to five straight, adding to his team leading win total, bringing his record to 17-2.
Louisiana fights off Georgia Southern to snag its first @SunBelt win of the season!! ??#GeauxCajuns ?? pic.twitter.com/qK63PH90Kt
— Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns® Men's Tennis (@RaginCajunsMT) March 22, 2019
HOW IT HAPPENED (Doubles): Louisiana came out and set the tone for the match, taking the doubles point with a pair of wins at the top of the lineup. The first domino to fall was at No. 1 doubles when the Louisiana pairing of Libaud and junior Pease Dolan took down JC Alcala and Diego Finkelstein, 6-2.
Louisiana then wrapped up the doubles point with a win at No. 2 by Galka and freshman Kacper Dworak, when they knocked off the Georgia Southern duo of Antonio Muniz and Murphy McCullough, 6-4. The win at No. 2 locked up the doubles point and gave Louisiana an important 1-0 lead heading into singles.
HOW IT HAPPENED (Singles): Fraser dominated Alcala in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 5 to get Louisiana off to a strong start in singles, giving the Ragin' Cajuns a 2-0 lead overall. But the Eagles would get one back at No. 2, when Dolan fell to Muniz, 6-2, 6-3, to put the score at 2-1.
Lago, much like Fraser, controlled his match at No. 3, taking down Finkelstein in straight sets, 6-2, 6-0, putting Louisiana one win away from clinching the match. It would take a while, and a battle from Libaud, before Louisiana would come away with that win, but come away they did.
At No. 4, Libaud found himself in a fight, having to hold off McCullough in a first set tiebreaker, before storming back in the second set to lock up the win for Louisiana. After the dust settled, Libaud had come away with a 7-6 (5), 6-4 win to lock up Louisiana's conference opening win.
Adding to Louisiana's win total in the match, was Galka at No. 1, who had to win back-to-back tiebreakers against Stefano Di Aloy, to come away with the win. Di Aloy came back in the first set, before Galka shut him down in the breaker, and the feat was repeated by Di Aloy in the second set, but once again Galka shut the door to come away with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) straight set win to give Louisiana a 5-2 win on the day.
UP NEXT FOR THE CAJUNS: Louisiana remains at Cajun Courts with a Sunday morning Sun Belt matchup with the Georgia State Panthers, with first serve on Sunday, March 24, coming at 10 a.m.
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:
1,2
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
5,2,3,4,6,1
Players Mentioned
