NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers tennis teams will prepare this weekend to play at their home courts for the Southland Conference Championships. The women will face UIW in the opening round on Friday at 9 a.m. while the men take on UIW on Saturday at 2 p.m.
WOMEN'S PREVIEW
The women's squad finished the regular season with a 13-8 mark overall and a 4-2 record in conference play. New Orleans ended the season on a hot streak as they won five consecutive matches which included conference wins against UIW, Nicholls and Southeastern.
Lina Hohnhold is on a 14-match winning streak in singles entering the tournament. Hohnhold has gone 26-2 in her career in singles matches at New Orleans. She was recently named First Team All-Southland on Wednesday.
As a unit, the doubles teams have been solid overall winning nearly 70 percent of their matches this season. Hohnhold and
Salma Abdelrahim have gone 6-3 at flight one.
Ank Vullings and
Lea Alguacil have settled into flight two with a 4-1 mark.
Estelle Vanthier and
Mar Gendra who currently play at flight three, are 4-0 paired together in doubles.
The Privateers also had two all-conference selections in singles in Abdelrahim and Alguacil. Abdelrahim scored 10 wins on the season while Alguacil finished 4-2 against conference opponents.
The women defeated UIW 5-2 in the regular season in San Antonio. Their best conference tournament finish was the semifinals in 2015 and 2017.
MEN'S PREVIEW
The men's team shared the Southland regular season title with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UIW. Heading into the postseason, the Privateers have a mark of 14-6 against a tough schedule that saw three ranked opponents faced (Louisiana, LSU, Rice).
The men's team had three student-athletes who reached double figures in wins.
Marcel Volz and
Max Heinzel each had 12 wins while
Luke Joujan followed closely behind with 11 victories. Volz also became the first Privateer to earn Southland Player of the Year honors on Thursday.
The Privateers started the season 8-0 which was their best start on record (full records have been kept since 1997). In nine home matches this year, the Privateers went 6-3.
New Orleans' best performance was a runner-up finish at the 2013 Championships. In the regular season, the Privateers lost 5-2 against UIW in San Antonio.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans are encouraged to follow
@PrivateersTN on Twitter,
@PrivateersTN on Instagram, like
Privateers Tennis on Facebook and subscribe to the
UNOPrivateers YouTube channel.
