Tulane University
East Carolina
Men's Tennis Capsizes Pirates
Apr 1, 2011 | Men's Tennis
April 1, 2011
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Last season the Tulane men's tennis return to the courts for the first time following a five-year layoff after suspending operations of the program because of Hurricane Katrina. Friday, the Green Wave moved one step closer to bringing back the pre-storm prominence on the courts with a 4-2 victory over East Carolina, the first Conference USA win since 2005.
Tulane (8-9, 1-5 C-USA) came from behind to earn the victory over ECU (10-7, 0-2 C-USA) in the C-USA Shootout hosted by Southern Mississippi at the USM Tennis Courts.
"I've been talking a lot about process and experience through trial and belief, today's match was a great example of how all that paid off," Tulane head coach Mark Booras said. "We faced a very tough team that beat us pretty badly last year. We lost the doubles point, but the guys put on their rally caps, weathered the storm, fought back hard and won."
ECU claimed the doubles point with wins on courts one and two, but the Green Wave - who snapped a nine-match conference losing streak - got things going in singles.
Joe Young put Tulane on the board with a 6-1, 6-3, victory over Massimo Mannino on court two. The win for Young was his 10th of the spring season.
A court-five win for ECU put the Pirates back up 2-1, but Adam Bernstein won 6-3, 6-2, over Henrik Skalmerud on court six to knot the score at 2-2 before Holger Norregaard and Shaye Wali each came from behind to earn victories for Tulane to clinch the team win.
Norregaard won 6-4, 6-3, on court four, while Wali rallied for a 7-6 opening set loss on court three to take sets two and three 6-2, 6-3.
"Hats off to Shaye who was down a set and a break and came back to win the second set," Booras said, "That showed a lot of courage, a lot of belief and a lot of fight. He was not going to let this one go. Holgar was in the same place in his match. He was down 4-0 in the first set and came back and won. He played his game and got back into it and started breaking the guy down."
Tulane was the Conference USA champions in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and has won 11 straight conference matches before having to suspend the operations. Prior to the win over ECU, the Green Wave had lost all nine C-USA matches since returning last spring.
"We talked about playing as a team together; winning as a team, losing as a team, but always fighting together as a team," Booras added. "We really put things together today, came back two different times and pulled it out. I'm very proud of the guys for sticking with it after a tough middle part of the season."
The victory for Tulane was the third in the last four matches and the second away from New Orleans.
"The next step is turning around tomorrow against a tough UAB team and reproducing the same type of attitude and effort," added Booras, whose Green Wave team plays UAB Saturday at 10 a.m. CDT on the second day of the 2011 C-USA Shootout.
Players Mentioned
