Colonel Men’s Tennis Set for Southland Conference Tournament

Colonel Men’s Tennis Set for Southland Conference Tournament

Bracket

THIBODAUX, La. – After falling in the championship match last season, the Nicholls men's tennis team will look to go a step further this year as the Colonels begin postseason play Saturday in the Southland Conference Tournament against the University of New Orleans.

First serve at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center is scheduled for 10 a.m. The winner between No. 3 seed Nicholls (8-10, 3-2) and No. 2 seed UNO (10-10, 4-1) will advance to Sunday's championship match to take on the winner of No. 1 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and No. 4 seed Lamar. Sunday's match is scheduled for 11 a.m., with the winner earning the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA championship.

The Colonels matched their highest win total in conference play, going 3-2 for the second straight season. Nicholls defeated Lamar, Oral Roberts and Texas Pan-American, while coming up short against Texas A&M-Corpus Christ, which won the regular season for the sixth consecutive time, and UNO.

The Privateers of UNO took the match 5-2 against Nicholls on Feb. 2, but the Colonels have changed up the lineup since then. While the top portion of the lineup remained the same, freshmen Evan Karatzas and Jeoffrey Noblecourt have anchored the No. 5 and 6 spots, respectively, led by Karatzas' 2-1 record over the last three conference matches.

Leading the Colonels this season were seniors Dmitry Kozionov, Roy Knight and freshman Nico Mertens, who all went 4-1 in conference play to garner All-Southland honors. Against UNO, Mertens and Knight earned three-set wins in singles, but Kozionov suffered his only conference loss, falling in the No. 1 match to Rui Silva in a close  6-4, 7-6 (10-6) decision.

In doubles play against the Privateers, Nicholls fell 2-1 as Evan Karatzas/Sidharth Sivakumar prevented the sweep with an 8-7 win at No. 3 against Vasco Leitao/Chris Appelgren.

The Privateers only conference setback came to the Southland champion Islanders. Leading the way for UNO in conference play was Hossam Meligy with a 4-1 record, with his lone defeat coming against Knight. Overall, Silva posted a 15-10 record in singles, followed by Abdelrahman Zaki at 13-9.