HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Nicholls State University men's tennis team took on Southern Miss on Thursday afternoon and was shutout for the first time this season, falling 7-0 to the Golden Eagles at the USM Tennis Courts.

Nicholls (3-3), who came up empty in the scoring column for only the third time in the last three seasons, will return to the courts on Sunday at home in their conference opener against UTSA. The match was originally scheduled for Saturday, but was pushed back a day. Starting time is still to be determined.

In doubles play, Southern Miss (5-2) won the No. 1 match against Palash Tiwari/ Sidharth Sivakumar, 8-3; however, Dmitry Kozionov and Shayann Vaezzadeh evened up the count with an 8-3 victory at No. 2. In the decisive matchup, Damjan Despotovski / Roy Knight were edged in extra points, 9-7, as USM took a 1-0 lead.

Although Nicholls came up empty in singles action, two matches had to be decided by tiebreakers and four sets went into extra points. In the No. 3 and No. 4 flights, Vaezzadeh and Knight, respectively, fought back to win their second sets before falling in the tiebreaker.

The complete results are listed below.

Southern Miss 7, Nicholls 0

Singles
1. Matt Frost (USMM) def. Damjan Despotovski (NICH) 6-1, 7-6 (7-3)
2. Paulo Alvarado (USMM) def. Dmitry Kozionov (NICH) 7-5, 6-3
3. Juan Escobar (USMM) def. Shayann Vaezzadeh (NICH) 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 1-0 (10-8)
4. Inaki Belloso (USMM) def. Roy Knight (NICH) 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (10-5)
5. Jovan Zeljkovic (USMM) def. Palash Tiwari (NICH) 6-3, 6-1
6. Andrew Goodwin (USMM) def. Sidharth Sivakumar (NICH) 6-1, 6-1

Doubles
1. Frost/ Belloso (USMM) def. Tiwari/ Sivakumar (NICH) 8-3
2. Kozionov/ Vaezzadeh (NICH) def. Alvarado/ Escobar (USMM) 8-3
3. Goodwin/Michael Elortegui (USMM) def. Despotovski/ Knight (NICH) 9-7