HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Nicholls State University men's tennis team picked up a 5-2 victory over Southern Miss Tuesday afternoon at the USM Tennis Courts.

After the squads split the first two doubles matches, Nicholls (3-2) earned the point after battling to take the No. 2 match. The sophomore duo of Roy Knight and Dmitry Kozionov outlasted Paulo Alvarado/Jovan Zeljkovic 9-8 (7-3).

Razvan Cojocaru opened up singles play for the Colonels with an easy 6-0, 6-0 victory. Damjan Despotovski won in No. 1 play, 7-6,7-5 while freshman Shayann Vaezzadeh picked up a 6-0, 6-2 win. Nicholls dropped the No. 3 and No. 4 matches; however, freshman Palash Tiwari was able to fight back after dropping his first set to pick up the final point in three sets.

Both the men's and women's teams were in action on Sunday, picking wins over Xavier (La.). The men won 6-1 while the women took their match 7-0.

The Colonel tennis teams return to action this weekend with a pair of matches in Beaumont, Texas. Nicholls is slated to take on Prairie View A&M on Saturday before facing Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Southland play on Sunday.

The complete results for the Southern Miss match are below.

Nicholls State vs Southern Miss (2/15/2011)
Nicholls State 5, Southern Miss 2
2/15/2011 at Hattiesburg, Miss. (USM Tennis Courts)

Singles competition
1. Damjan Despotovski (NICH) def. Julien Roussel (USMM) 7-6 (7-4), 7-5
2. Shayann Vaezzadeh (NICH) def. Jovan Zeljkovic (USMM) 6-0, 6-2
3. Jan Burmeister (USMM) def. Dmitry Kozionov (NICH) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
4. Paulo Alvarado (USMM) def. Roy Knight (NICH) 6-4, 6-1
5. Palash Tiwari (NICH) def. Alex Doleac (USMM) 5-7, 6-1, 6-0
6. Razvan Cojocaru (NICH) def. Stewart Gammill (USMM) 6-0, 6-0

Doubles competition
1. Jan Burmeister/Julien Roussel (USMM) def. Damjan Despotovski/Palash Tiwari (NICH) 8-1
2. Roy Knight/Dmitry Kozionov (NICH) def. Paulo Alvarado/Jovan Zeljkovic (USMM) 9-8 (7-3)
3. Matshidiso Malope/Shayann Vaezzadeh (NICH) def. Alex Doleac/Stewart Gammill (USMM) 8-2

Match Notes
Nicholls State 3-2
Southern Miss 1-8
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (6,4,2,3,5,1)