April 25, 2009

Final Stats

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Nicholls men's tennis team pulled off another upset, defeating No.2 seed UTPA 4-0 on Saturday, and are headed to the Southland Conference Championship for the first time in school history.

"We've been close all year. All of a sudden in these past two matches we got wins from the bottom of the lineup in singles," said Head Coach Jim Hunter. "We just finally put it together, we've been confident we could and we did, and it's a wonderful thing for Nicholls State."

The Colonels (13-9, 3-5) captured the doubles point, posting wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles. Getting the first win at doubles was the duo of sophomore Radu Ionescu and Abhaya Prakash as the team posted an 8-4 victory over Texas-Pan American's Aswin Vijayaragavan and Marcus Dornauf.

Nicholls then followed with a 9-7 win at No. 2 doubles with juniors Phenyo Matong and Eric Fisher out-dueling Beau Bernstein and Nirvick Mohinta. With the doubles point already in hand, Nicholls went into singles play with its eyes on another upset.

Ionescu made quick work of Mohinta at No. 2 singles with a 6-3, 6-4 victory, and Fisher followed suit with a 6-1, 6-0 win at the No. 3 spot over Andrew Irving. Then came the heroics of sophomore Rohan Shetty once again at No. 5 singles, posting a 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Dornauf to secure the win.

Matong's and sophomore Sami Mouline's matches ended unfinished in the third set, while Prakash's bout with Vijayaragaven was in the second set when play was halted.

Nicholls will square off against No. 1 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi tomorrow at Noon in the SLC Championship.

Official results from the match are below.

Match Three Results
No. 6 Nicholls State 4, No. 2 Texas-Pan American 0
Apr 25, 2009, at Corpus Christi, Texas

Singles competition:
1. Aswin Vijayaragavan (UTPA-M) vs. Abhaya Prakash (NICH-M) 4-6, 4-5, unfinished
2. Radu Ionescu (NICH-M) def. Nirvick Mohinta (UTPA-M) 6-3, 6-4
3. Eric Fisher (NICH-M) def. Andrew Irving (UTPA-M) 6-1, 6-0
4. Beau Bernstein (UTPA-M) vs. Phenyo Matong (NICH-M) 7-5, 2-6, 1-3, unfinished
5. Rohan Shetty (NICH-M) def. Marcus Dornauf (UTPA-M) 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)
6. Abdelhamid Riani (UTPA-M) vs. Sami Mouline (NICH-M) 6-1, 7-6 (10-8), 0-1, unfinished

Doubles competition:
1. Radu Ionescu/Abhaya Prakash (NICH-M) def. Aswin Vijayaragavan/Marcus Dornauf (UTPA-M) 8-4
2. Phenyo Matong/Eric Fisher (NICH-M) def. Beau Bernstein/Nirvick Mohinta (UTPA-M) 9-7
3. Andrew Irving/Abdelhamid Riani (UTPA-M) vs. Rohan Shetty/Sami Mouline (NICH-M) 6-6, unfinished

Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (3,2,5)
T-2:53

###