SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The New Orleans men's tennis team will be seeded no worse than No. 2 in the Southland Conference tournament following a 5-1 loss to No. 59 ranked Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday afternoon.
Needing a dual victory to secure the Southland Conference regular season championship outright, UNO (8-7, 4-1 SLC) was only able to muster a single victory in the six contested singles' matches.
The doubles' matches were not played according to Privateer head coach
Burzis Kanga due to the allotted time the teams were afforded by the host Texas-San Antonio.
Hossam Meligy at the No. 5 position represented the lone win for the Privateers, defeating Javier Pujol 7-6, 6-4. With the victory, Meligy improved to 4-1 against Southland Conference opposition this season.
UNO nearly added a pair of victories against TAMU-CC (9-7, 1-0 SLC) at the No. 3 and No. 4 courts.
Guillermo Aylon won the opening set at No. 3 before falling 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to Matt Westmoreland while
Abdelrahman Zaki rallied from a set down before falling to Ricardo Mayagoitia 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 at No. 4.
“I am really disappointed with today's outcome,” said Kanga. “We got beat by a good team and when it comes down to the conference tournament, it will come down to which team is most prepared and healthy.”
“We have a month until the league tournament and we are going to have to prepare better. As a coach, I saw some things today and now we are in a position to work on those points as we go along.”
The Islanders still have four remaining Southland matches on their schedule over the next several weeks heading into the league's Apr. 26-27 tournament at Lamar. TAMU-CC would need to win all four remaining matches to claim the Southland regular season title outright.
“We have to wait and see what happens with their conference matches,” said Kanga. “There are four good teams in this league in Corpus Christi, Nicholls, Pan American and us.”
“I expect those four teams at the end of the season will be in the tournament and that we will play either Nicholls or Pan American in the semifinals.”
The UNO men's tennis team will return to the court on Apr. 2 at 5 p.m. in Baton Rouge, La. for a match against LSU. The Tigers are ranked No. 33 as of Tuesday.
NOTES
Kanga announced Wednesday that the UNO men's and women's tennis teams will face Jackson State on Apr. 18 at 11 a.m. at the University Tennis Center. Both Privateer tennis teams were originally scheduled to face JSU on Mar. 15 before the Tigers had a travel issue in their attempt to return to the Gulf Coast following a Spring Break trip to Florida.
#59 Texas A&M - Corpus Christi 5, New Orleans 1
3/27/2013 at San Antonio, Texas (UT-San Antonio)
Singles competition
1. #96 Peter Nagy (AMCC) def.
Ricardo Campos (UNO) 6-0, 1-0, retired
2. Gergo Weidinger (AMCC) def.
Rui Silva (UNO) 6-1, 6-0
3. Matt Westmoreland (AMCC) def.
Guillermo Aylon (UNO) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
4. Ricardo Mayagoitia (AMCC) def.
Abdelrahman Zaki (UNO) 6-0, 5-7, 6-2
5.
Hossam Meligy (UNO) def. Javier Pujol (AMCC) 7-6, 6-4
6. Guillaume Rauseo (AMCC) def.
David Malmgren (UNO) 6-4, 6-1
Doubles competition
1.
Ricardo Campos/
Hossam Meligy (UNO) vs. Peter Nagy/Gergo Weidinger (AMCC) unfinished
2.
Abdelrahman Zaki/
Rui Silva (UNO) vs. Ricardo Mayagoitia/Matt Westmoreland (AMCC) unfinished
3.
David Malmgren/
Guillermo Aylon (UNO) vs. Guillaume Rauseo/Andrew Maingot (AMCC) unfinished
