On Saturday, April 5 the Southern Miss men’s tennis team had little trouble hosting Alcorn State, beating the Braves six matches to one.

Southern Miss is now 10-9 after the weekend matchups. The day started with doubles matches where USM was one game away from sweeping Alcorn. Their only loss of the weekend came when Alex Doleac and teammate Girgory Trotsenko struggled and came up short against Maxim Tkachenko and Lucas Morviac losing 8-6.

The rest of the Golden Eagles had an easy time against the Braves. USM senior partners Paulo Alvarado and Juan Escobar beat Ernesto Santillan and Nikita Kostikov 8-5. USM’s Chao-Yu Huang and Vasco Valverde defeated Alcorn’s Garry Armor and Nischay Rawal 8-2.

Head coach Zubin Engineer was pleased with his team’s effort and performance. “We had two good wins at No. 1 & 2 doubles to carry the momentum in singles to win the match 6-1,” Engineer said. “The team focused well and everyone played their games. This was a solid team performance.”

As coach Engineer said, the team would use the momentum and confidence gained in the double matches to help blow out the Braves in the singles. Alvarado gave USM its first points, beating Santillan.

USM’s Escobar topped Tkachenko, winning the two sets in the match, 6-4 and 6-2. USM’s Huang stepped onto the court next and beat Kostikov. Valverde followed Huang’s victory with two victories of his own, beating Rawal 6-3 and 6-2.

Doleac was the last Golden Eagle to take the court. Doleac knocked off Morviac with 6-2, 4-6 and 10-3 victories. Alcorn’s only victory came after Amor avenged his doubles loss, beating Trotsenko 6-2 and 6-3.
The men’s tennis team will return to the courts Friday as they host UTSA at 2 p.m. and Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday at 2 p.m.