THIBODAUX, La. - Nicholls State University men's tennis freshman Antoine Martin-Thiriat remained undefeated in singles play and Pavle Drobnjakovic earned a win against his former squad, but it would be the only points for the Colonels in their 5-2 loss against North Dakota Thursday afternoon at the Colonel Tennis Complex. 

Martin-Thiriat was the first to earn a point for the Colonels when he defeated North Dakota's Petro Alex 6-2, 6-1. 

Drobnajokovic, who started his career at UND in 2019, outlasted Johnatan Parat 7-6 with a 12-10 tiebreaker in the first set but fell short 1-6 in the second. In the final set, Drobnajokovic came up on top 10-3 to close out the game. 

"Huge credit to Antoine Martin-Thiriat once again. He just keeps chugging along every day. And big props to Pavle - just a tremendous win with an extended tiebreaker in the first set and then he closed it out on the backside," Head Coach Greg Harkins said.

In doubles competition, the Colonels lost in the first game 6-1, but Axel Cronje and Antonio Sasso claimed a 6-4 victory to tie up the competition. Prasanna Pravin Bagade and Griffin Babineaux came close to securing the doubles point but fell short 6-4. 

"We're tweaking a lot of things out there, we were really close in the doubles today. We need to get that doubles point and it's something that I think we're going to get over that hump soon," Harkins said. 

The Colonels record dropped to 4-4 and they play against Troy Saturday, March 20 at 2 p.m. in the Colonel Tennis Complex.