Southeastern Louisiana Ousts UT Arlington,

Clinches Semifinal Date With Host Islanders

 

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Southeastern Louisiana men’s tennis team advanced into the semifinal round of the 2009 Southland Conference Men’s Tennis Championship with a 4-1 victory against UT Arlington on Friday at the HEB Tennis Center.

 

Next up for the fourth-seeded Lions is a rematch against top-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the undefeated Southland Conference regular-season champions, at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.

 

The Lions jumped out to an early, 1-0 lead in the first completed match of the men’s championship after sweeping the doubles point away from the No. 5 Mavericks. Damien Cordoba and Julien Roussel teamed up to defeat Adam Srkala and David Subirats 8-1 to gain the initial advantage. Southeastern’s No. 1 duo of Benjamin Enke and Stepan Siska then clinched the 1-0 lead with an 8-6 win just as Jan Bezdecka and Guillaume Capovin were finishing off their 8-4 win at No. 2.

 

Looking to bounce back, UT Arlington received an impressive performance from its No. 1 singles player in Celedinas. He defeated Siska 6-2, 6-4 to even the match at 1-1, but it was a win that would prove to be the one and only for the Mavericks on the day.

 

Southeastern Louisiana regained its lead after Roussel defeated Minkin 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 2 position. Enke followed suit with a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 3 and Capovin finished off Srkala, 6-1, 6-4, at No. 5 to clinch the fourth point and a match victory.

 

The Nos. 4 and 6 singles matchups went unfinished after the Lions’ earned their fourth point.

 

Saturday’s semifinal will be the second meeting between Southeastern Louisiana and A&M-Corpus Christi in a week. The No. 1 Islanders defeated the No. 4 Lions, 6-1, on April 19 amid a flurry of late-season matches that allowed the tournament hosts to finish off an unbeaten, 6-0 campaign. Dmitry Novikov, Mikhail Pavlov, Laurent Montoisy, Jaume Farras and James Langford each won their singles matches while Cordoba notched the Lions’ lone singles victory in that first meeting, which also saw A&M-Corpus Christi win two-of-three doubles matches to secure the match’s opening point.

 

 

Match Two Results

No. 4 Southeastern Louisiana def. No. 5 UT Arlington, 4-1

Apr 24, 2009, at Corpus Christi, Texas

 

Singles competition:

1. Mindaugas Celedinas (UTA-M) def. Stepan Siska (SLU-M) 6-2, 6-4

2. Julien Roussel (SLU-M) def. Dmitry Minkin (UTA-M) 6-2, 6-2

3. Benjamin Enke (SLU-M) def. Brieuc Hamon (UTA-M) 6-2, 6-0

4. Damien Cordoba (SLU-M) vs. David Subirats (UTA-M) 6-3, 4-3, unfinished

5. Guillaume Capovin (SLU-M) def. Adam Srkala (UTA-M) 6-1, 6-4

6. Jan Bezdecka (SLU-M) vs. Gonzalo Bienzobas (UTA-M) 6-7, unfinished

 

Doubles competition:

1. Benjamin Enke/Stepan Siska (SLU-M) def. Mindaugas Celedinas/Dmitry Minkin (UTA-M) 8-6

2. Jan Bezdecka/Guillaume Capovin (SLU-M) def. Gonzalo Bienzobas/Brieuc Hamon (UTA-M) 8-4

3. Damien Cordoba/Julien Roussel (SLU-M) def. Adam Srkala/David Subirats (UTA-M) 8-1

 

Match Notes:

Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles ()

T-2:30 

 

 

Post-match Quotes

Southeastern Louisiana Head Coach – Jason Hayes

“We play great today; you have to play great to beat a team like UT Arlington.”

 

“I was very happy with how hard the guys played; we played a really tough match against them a couple of weeks ago.”

 

“It was a great sign that we came out and played this well, hopefully we can carry that over to tomorrow.”

 

Southeastern Louisiana – Senior Guillaume Capovin

“Today was tough because of the wind, but it was the same for everybody.”

 

“We started out well by winning the doubles point, we knew it would be key after playing them to a 4-3 win a few weeks ago.”

 

“I played very good the first set, going up 5-0 before winning 6-1.”

 

“The second set was tougher, the UT Arlington player played much tougher.”