TOURNAMENT PAGE
BEAUMONT, Texas – The Nicholls State University men's tennis team will make their sixth consecutive appearance in the Southland Conference Tournament as they face No. 1 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday, April 29 at 10 a.m. The tournament will be held at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center.
The Colonels enter the postseason as the No. 4 seed with a 5-10 overall record. Nicholls was unable to capture a win in league play this season at 0-5, but claimed the last spot in the tournament due to Abilene Christian and UIW being ineligible for the postseason in their final year of transition.
Nicholls will look to take advantage of the opportunity by upsetting the league's premier program. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi heads into the tournament as the top-seeded team through the three-way tiebreaker for first with Lamar and Abilene Christian after the trio finished at 4-1. The Islanders, led by Southland Player of the Year Kevin Bettendroffer, have won 10 of the last 11 regular season championships.
The Islanders and Colonels squared off earlier this season and Nicholls was defeated, 7-0.
Sam Meessen picked up a shutout in the second set on the No. 2 court before going on to drop the match.
Bernard Wezeman also had a good showing against Bettendroffer at No. 1, falling 7-6 (10-8), 6-3.
Wezeman and
Oleksander Podgursky each led Nicholls with six singles victories on the season, but neither was able to win one in league play. The rest of the lineup - Meessen,
Max Sinn,
Leo Santos and
Cornelius Schramm – each went 1-4 in singles in Southland competition.
Two duos went .500 in league play for doubles, led by Podgursky and Sinn at 2-2. Along with going 6-5 on the year, the tandem earned victories against New Orleans and UIW. Meessen and Wezeman posted a 5-2 overall record and split their doubles matches, winning at New Orleans. In the three unfinished doubles matches for the duo, they held the lead twice and were tied once when play was suspended.
Admission is free to all matches of the 2017 Southland Conference Men's Tennis Tournament. Please visit Southland.org/tennis17 for more information.
For the latest news on Colonel men's tennis, follow the team on Twitter @Nicholls_MTEN.
