NEW ORLEANS, La. - Playing its first Southland Conference match of the season, the Nicholls State University men's tennis team was handed a 5-2 loss at New Orleans on Wednesday at the Privateer Tennis Center.
Nicholls (6-4, 0-1 SLC) received wins from
Antonio Sasso andÂ
Kotaro Matsumura in singles but came up short in the other four matches. New Orleans (4-5, 1-0 SLC) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in doubles after winning courts 2 and 3.
In singles action,Â
Prasanna Pravin Bagade fell in straight sets at No. 5 before Sasso upped his singles record on the season to 8-2 with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 4. Unfortunately, Nicholls was unable to carry that momentum the rest of the way as UNO took the next three courts in straight sets.
Harry Collins and
Danail Banov forced a tiebreaker in a set but came up short.
Matsumura closed the match with a come-from-behind win over Joseph Townes on court 6. He fell in the first, 6-4, and battled back for a 7-6 (7-2) win in the second. With the team match already decided, the two played in a 10-point tiebreaker with Matsumura edging Townes 11-9.Â
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Nicholls will have the week off before heading to Texas for matches at UIW (March 23) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (25th).Â
