Men's and Women's Tennis Teams Prepare for Southland Tournament

MEN'S BRACKET | WOMEN'S BRACKET

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The New Orleans Privateers men's and women's tennis teams will start their respective journeys in the Southland Tournament on Thursday at the Thomas J. Henry Courts. The women will play Southeastern at 10 a.m. and the men will open against Bryant at 2 p.m.
 
WOMEN'S PREVIEW
The Privateer women will be in one of the two play-in matches in the first round. The winner of the Privateers-Lady Lions bout will get UIW in the quarterfinals.
 
New Orleans (8-9, 1-6) had a tough end to the season but the draw features a match-up that went down to the wire in the regular season and the prospect of playing a UIW squad that the Privateers beat during the season.
 
Against Southeastern, the Privateers were in the fight throughout but were narrowly defeated 4-3. Southeastern won the clinching point when Carla Del Barrio won her third set 6-3 at flight three.
 
The Privateers got points from Didi Bredberg Canizares, Laurie Barendse and Kateryna Kalistratova. All three won their singles matches with Barendse and Kalistratova getting it done while rallying from a set down against their opponents.
 
A young team with a plethora of freshmen and sophomores, the Privateers battled against a competitive conference slate all season. Bredberg was 11-3 in singles and finished 11-4 along with teammate, Raluca Puscas. Also, Laurie Barendse engineered a 5-2 mark in Southland play.
 
The winner of the match will face UIW on Friday at 2 p.m.
 
MEN'S PREVIEW
The men's team, coming off their first outright Southland regular season championship, went undefeated in league play and 12-5 overall against a difficult scheduled that featured four teams currently ranked in the latest ITA rankings.
 
The Privateers have had plenty of time between their last match and the opening of the tournament. New Orleans last played against Lamar on Apr. 4.
 
Espen Lagarde, Luke Joujan and Lilian Dubois all went undefeated in singles play at flights three through five this season providing the depth to the rotation that kept the Privateers unblemished against Southland foes.
 
Karim Al-Amin also had a phenomenal freshman season in singles and doubles. Al-Amin had a combined record of 24-6 between singles and doubles this year and was 4-1 against conference opponents.
 
New Orleans is looking to repeat as Southland postseason champions after winning it all on their home court last season. With a win on Thursday, the Privateers will face the winner of NJIT and Lamar on Friday at 6 p.m.
 
The Privateers did not play Bryant during the regular season. The Bulldogs went 7-17 overall. Their only conference foe faced was NJIT. The Bulldogs lost 4-3.
 
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