NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers men's tennis team (5-2) gutted out the doubles point in a tiebreak and won three of four three-set singles matches in a 6-1 victory over the Southern Miss Golden Eagles (6-3) on Saturday at the University Tennis Center.
The win was the first on the tennis court against Southern Miss in the last nine attempts and the first triumph since March 2004.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The doubles tandem of
Misha Fomenkov and
Johannes Klein got the Privateers out to a fast start with a 6-2 victory at flight three. Southern Miss quickly evened the score though with a 6-3 triumph at flight one doubles.
With the point in the balance, it was up to
Max Heinzel and
Espen Lagarde at flight two. The pair pushed matters to a tiebreak where they had to go beyond seven points. However, the duo of freshmen prevailed 9-7 to give the Privateers the first point of the match.
SINGLES
The momentum kept going into singles as Heinzel, who played at flight two for the first time this season, won in straight sets 7-5, 6-2. Fomenkov kept things rolling as he dominated at flight three with a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
The rest of the matches went three sets and the Privateers continued to prevail in high leverage situations. It started with
Austin Vos who had to win a second set tiebreak to push the match to a third set. He then gained a service break en route to a 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 victory.
With the match already in hand,
Mats Westkamp and Lagarde also picked up singles wins. Westkamp rebounded from losing a first set tiebreak to win 6-7, 7-6, 6-4. Lagarde won a third set tiebreak in his match at flight five.
FROM COACH KANGA
"Winning the doubles point shifted the momentum of this match. Misha and Max ignited us to get a 3-0 lead."
"Kudos also go out to Mats, Espen, and Austin who all fought until the end. This was a huge win considering how good this USM team has been over the last few years and I'm extremely proud of our players."
NEXT UP
The Privateers will host UTRGV on Monday, Mar. 2. The match is scheduled for a 10 a.m. start.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans are encouraged to follow
@PrivateersTN on Twitter,
@UNOPrivateers on Instagram, like
/NewOrleansTennis on Facebook and subscribe to the
PrivateerAthletics YouTube channel.
