Tulane University
Nicholls State
Tulane Men's Tennis Swept by Nicholls State
Feb 25, 2010 | Men's Tennis
Feb. 25, 2010
NEW ORLEANS - Nicholls State `s experience proved to be too much for the youthful Tulane men's tennis team on Thursday afternoon as the Colonels swept the Green Wave, 7-0, in a dual match at the Goldring Tennis Center.
"Nicholls State came in here with the best team I've seen them have in a long time," Tulane head coach Mark Booras said. "My hat's off to them. They had depth from one to six. They were hungry to get a win and you could hear them fighting the whole time. Our guys were hungry too, but this first year back has been a good learning experience. Our guys are seeing all the different elements of a dual match and today we saw yet another element of what's involved in a dual match."
Tulane's (2-4) lineup of six freshmen and one sophomore completed hard against Nicholls State's (6-2) line-up of three seniors, a junior and a pair of freshmen.
The Colonels started out by winning the doubles point by taking all three matches. The duo of senior Eric Fisher and freshman Roy Knight defeated Tulane's Etham Frenkel and Trevor Getz, 8-4, on court 3, followed by freshman Dmitry Kozionov and senior Phenyo Matong getting past Adam Bernstein and Rodrigo Rappaccioli, 8-4, on court 2.
The Green Wave's Joe Young and Shaye Wali gave junior Radu Ionescu and senior Vlad Popa all they could handle, but fell, 8-7, losing the tie breaker 7-2.
The match was clinched for the Colonels when Knight defeated Getz, 6-1, 6-1, on court six in singles play. Nicholls State earned its second and third points with Fisher's court 4 victory over Bernstein, 6-2, 6-0, and Kozionov's court five win over Coby Kramer-Golinkoff, 6-0, 6-2.
The final three singles matches were decided in three sets when Tulane's Rappaccioli, Young and Wali each won one set. NSU's Popa defeated Rappaccioli in three sets, 6-0, 0-6, 6-1, on court 3, while Ionescu got past Young, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-6) and Matong edged Wali, 5-7, 7-5, 1-0 (10-7).
"The positive thing is that we are going to take what we learned here and go forward with it," Booras added. "We have a tough match coming up at Ole Miss on Saturday. They are ranked 11th, but our guys are just looking to improve upon where we are. As long as we are taking steps forward each match whether we lose 7-0 of 4-3, if we can learn from what we did we are going to get better this year. I have a positive outlook of where we are going to end up this season. For this first year back we are going to turn all this adversity into great growth for the future."
Tulane hits the road for the second time this spring season and travels to Oxford, Miss., to face No. 11 Ole Miss on Saturday at 1 p.m. CST.
Players Mentioned
