With the beginning of the men’s tournament upon us, Southern Miss’ tennis teams closed out their final games with two away games apiece.
The women’s team traveled to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the men traveled to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette before both teams matched up with Nicholls on Sunday, April 12.
Women’s tennis played their second-to-last game in Birmingham on Friday. After losing the doubles point, Angelina Blinova tied the match 1-1 with her singles set victory on court one. Despite this win, the Golden Eagles lost three straight singles sets as they lost the match 4-1.
Sunday’s match against Nicholls started off well for the Golden Eagles.
After victories by Miranda Xu and Hannah Chambers on court two and Pimmada Lim and Kamornwan Kornsila on court three, the Golden Eagles earned the doubles point to take the early lead. The Colonels responded quickly with three straight singles sets victories to take a 3-1 lead. Kornsila won a narrow three-game set to cut Nicholls ‘ lead to one. Limited the game with her own three game set win, but the Colonels secured the final singles set to take the 4-3 victory.
In their Saturday match against ULL, the men’s team started the match with two quick doubles
losses. After a pair of quick singles set losses, the Golden Eagles found themselves down 3-0. Saheb Sodhi managed to secure a narrow 6-3, 6-2 victory to put Southern Miss on the board, but another singles win for the Rajun Cajuns secured the 4-1 loss for Southern Miss.
In their final game of the season, the Golden Eagles played the Nicholls Colonels on the road. Eric Perkowski and Ritabrata Sarkar secured the first win for Southern Miss with their 6-2 doubles victory. Kale Mize and Julius Bult won their doubles match 6-3, earning the Golden Eagles their first doubles point since March 29.
Up 1-0, Saheb Sodhi won his singles set after two 6-1 victories to give the Golden Eagles a two-point lead. Bult gave Southern Miss a commanding 3-0 lead with his 6-2, 6-0 victory on court five, and Perkowski sealed the win for Southern Miss with his 6-3, 6-2 victories. This 4-0 victory ends the team’s six-game losing streak and gives the Golden Eagles their second road win
for the season.
With both seasons completed, the men‘s team sits at 8-11 on the season while the women hold an 8-8 record. Both teams travel to Rome, Ga., for the Sun Belt Conference tournament. The men’s tournament is April 16-19, while the women’s team plays April 23-26.
