THIBODAUX, La. - The Nicholls State University tennis program honored 10 seniors before its women's/men's doubleheader against Loyola New Orleans on Saturday at the Thibodaux Regional Sports Complex, and the men picked up a 4-0 win before the women fell short in a hard-fought battle, 4-3.
Before the match, Nicholls head coach
Greg Harkins shared a few words about his largest senior class. The men's team featured six seniors -
Danail Banov,
Harry Collins,
Ammar Fekery,
Omar Morsy,
Prasanna Pravin Bagade, and
Antonio Sasso, while the women had four -
Carla Bouygues,
Betija Dusele,
Lea Grinberg, and
Dareen Hassan.
The men's team won their sixth straight match, starting by winning the doubles point before securing victories in the first three completed singles contests. Collins and
Kotaro Matsumura won 6-3 at No. 3 doubles and Morsy paired up with
Quentin Lamothe for a 6-3 win at the top line.
In singles play, Lamothe made easy work of Hippolyte Preville with a 6-4, 6-0 victory at No. 3. Morsy and Matsumura also followed the formula with a first-set win followed by a shutout in the second.
On the women's side, the Colonels were outlasted in doubles action with the Wolf Pack taking Courts 1 and 2 via tiebreakers. Hassen and
Betija Dusele won at No. 3, 6-4, to get things started for the Red and Gray. However, Bouygues and
Constanza Cruz were outlasted 7-6 (7-3) before Loyola rallied from down 5-2 to secure the doubles point with a 7-6, (7.4) win at No. 2 against
Aada Inna and
Sophia Sara Safarova.
The Colonels turned the tide in singles play with the help of three Senior Day victories. Grinberg started with a shutout at No. 4 before winning the second set, 6-1. Hassan also had a shutout in Set 1 and went on to win, 6-0, 6-2 at No. 6. Bouygues put Nicholls ahead. 3-1, with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 2.
But Nicholls could not put an end to its current losing streak, which now stands at 12 matches.
Liu QianYu fell in straight sets against Lucy Carpenter at No. 1 and the Wolf Pack tied it as Chloe Henderson defeated Safarova, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. Cruz and Loyola's Adele Fererres had the closest battle of all of the courts as LU earned 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory to claim the team match.
