Nicholls men’s tennis team falls to Jacksonville State in home debut

The Nicholls men’s tennis team lost its home opener, falling to Jacksonville State 5-2 Thursday afternoon at the Thibodaux Regional Sports Complex.

The defeat came one day after the Nicholls men’s and women’s tennis teams opened the season with a sweep of Loyola in New Orleans.

Jacksonville State won four of the six singles matches and gained a point from doubles play with a sweep of the Colonels.

The two points for the Colonels came in singles play.

Playing at No. 3, Harry Collins of Nicholls defeated Xavier Marti, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, and No. 5 Antonio Sasso topped Matei Palcau, 6-1, 3-6, 10-6.

Winners for Gamecocks came at No. 1as Alin Fatu defeated Omar Morsy, 5-7, 6-0, 10-4; No. 2 Vanja Dobrnjac downed Quentin Lamothe, 6-3, 6-1; No. 4 Marko Milosavjevic topped Kotaro Matsumura, 6-0, 6-0, and No. 6 Liam Day beat Gerhard Venter, 6-3, 6-0.

The No. 1 Jacksonville State doubles team of Milosavljevic and Zach Murphy defeated the Nicholls duo of Lamothe and Sasso, 6-4; No. 2 Lucius Soller and Dobrnjac defeated Matsumura and Collins, 6-4; and No. 2 Fatu and Liam Day defeated Omar Morsy and Gerhard Venter, 6-3.

Nicholls opened the season with both the Colonels’ men’s and women’s teams gaining wins over Loyola on Wednesday afternoon at the City Park Tennis Complex in New Orleans.

The men defeated the Wolf Pack, ranked No. 23 in NAIA, 6-1, while the women edged Loyola 4-3.

In men’s play, the Colonels won five of six matches and two in doubles.

Omar Morsy, on the No. 1 line for Nicholls defeated Francisco Javier Arce Vieyra, 6-4, 6-1.

In other singles matches among the men, it was No. 2 Lamothe (Nicholls) defeated Remus Hebhang-Balan (Loyola), 6-3, 6-4; No. 3 Collins (Nicholls) defeated Samuel Motazed (Loyola), 6-2, 6-0; No. 4 Matsumura (Nicholls) defeated Spencer Matz (Loyola), 6-4, 6-4; No. 5 Sasso (Nicholls) defeated Hippolyte de Preville (Loyola), 6-4, 6-4; and No. 6 Herman Aure (Loyola) defeated Venter (Nicholls), 6-0, 6-4.

The Nicholls’ No. 1 doubles team of Sasso and Lamothe defeated Vieyra and Motazed, 6-2; and Nicholls No 2 doubles team of Matsumura and Collins defeated Hebhang-Balan and Akhil Indrabalan.

In a tightly contested women’s opener for Nicholls, the teams split six singles matches while the Colonels took two of three in doubles play, with two of the doubles matches going to tiebreakers against Loyola, ranked No. 11 in NAIA.

Playing at No. 1, Lucy Carpenter of Loyola defeated Qianyu Liu, 3-6, 6-1, 10-4.

In other matches it was No. 2 Micaela Ponce (Loyola) defeated Lea Grinberg (Nicholls), 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 10-4; No. 3 Sofia Safarova (Nicholls) defeated Fatima Vasquez (Loyola), 6-4, 6-4; No. 4 Aada Inna (Nicholls) defeated Chloe Henderson (Loyola), 6-3; No. 5 Adele Fereres (Loyola) defeated Carla Bouygues (Nicholls), 6-4, 4-6, 10-2; and No. 6 Dareen Hassan (Nicholls) defeated Avery Frierson (Loyola), 6-4, 6-1.

The Nicholls’ No. 1 doubles team of Grisberg and Inna defeated Carpenter and Vasquez, 6-4.

The other two matches were decided by tiebreakers.

At No. 2, Lui and Safarova (Nicholls) defeated Ponce and Ariana Salgueiro-Estela (Loyola), 7-6 (7-4); No. 3 Fereres and Henderson (Loyola) defeated Constanza Cruz and Bouygues (Nicholls), 7-6 (7-1).