Nicholls men’s and women’s tennis teams earn wins over visiting Alcorn State

The Nicholls tennis teams made the most of its “TCB” matches against Alcorn State on Wednesday afternoon at the Thibodaux Regional Tennis complex.

“Today was what we call a TCB day – taking care of business as our old friend Elvis would say,” Nicholls coach Greg Harkins said. “They did that. We need a little bit of luck. We need a lot of hard work, we bring it, but I’m always proud of the girls or the boys and they’re learning as we go along.”

The Colonels were able to take advantage of an undermanned, injury-riddled Alcorn team as the Nicholls men and women came away with wins. The men won 6-1 over the Braves and women 5-2.

On the men’s side, Harry Collins, who was recently named Player of the Week in the Southland Conference, remained unbeaten with a 6-0, 6-0 win over David Mantilla, playing Line 2.

“Harry Collins is taking it to another level at the moment,” Harkins said.

On the women’s side, Nicholls’ Sophia Safarova, playing Line 3, also remained undefeated with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Oihan Villanueva.

“On the women’s side, Sophia Safarova is your epitome of your workhorse. She’s an extremely physical player. She’s punishing the ball,” said Harkins.

The Nicholls men won Line 1 singles by retirement. Other men’s results included No. 3 Kotaro over Kijac Nikola (6-0, 6-4), Antonio Sasso defeated Cottle Emmanuel (6-4, 6-4). The Colonels won at No. 6 by default.

The only win for the Alcorn men came at No. 5 as Park Yangho defeated Gerhard Venter (6-4, 6-4).

In men’s doubles play, the No. 1 team of Sasso and Quentin Lamothe defeated Cottle and Nikola (7-6), and at No. 2, Collins and Matsumura defeated Yangho and Mantilla (6-3). Nicholls won at No. 3 by default.

Along with Safarova, other women’s singles wins came by: No. 1 Lui QianYu Lui over Doaa Mohamed (7-5, 6-3); No. 4 Aada Inna over Natalija Nikolic (6-1, 6-2); and No. 6. Constanza Cruz (6-2, 6-1).

The Nicholls women swept doubles play. The No. 1 team of Inna and Grinberg defeated Mohamed and Crimmel (6-2): No. 2 Lui and Safarova defeated Nikolic and Villanueva (6-1); and No. 3 Cruz and Bouygues defeated Kells and Rao (6-3).

There isn’t a lot of difference in terms of team makeup. It’s pretty balanced.

Because of the undermanned Alcorn squad, Nicholls was able to experiment with the lineup, according to Harkins.

“Today, we’re looking for playing the long game as a whole, trying to see where matchups are. What I did is I made a shift. I did some substitutions. What we did is we gave some guys different chances in different slots. I was very proud of that,” the Nicholls coach said.