Tennis squads show promise, no match for No. 3 Valdosta
The men’s team dominated in singles play against the Tigers on Saturday.
Senior Erick Siqueria won his match over Tony Martin of Morehouse 7-5, 6-2.
“[After the first set] I loosened up and got more focused,” Siqueria said. “It took the pressure off.”
Senior Justin Pickham shut out Josh Harris 6-0, 6-0. Senior Francis Yoshimoto won against the Tigers’ Kadir Carruthers 6-2, 6-0. Junior Max Beliankou was up 6-0 over Ben Seagle when Seagle ended the match early due to injury, giving Beliankou the win. Junior Giovane Nucci won convincingly over John Oliver of MC 6-0, 6-0. Freshman Robert Anglucci won his match 6-0, 6-2 over Michael Steward.
The men’s doubles teams achieved similar results.
Siqueria and Pickham won over Carruthers and Martin 8-1. Beliankou and Nucci won their match 8-4. Yoshimoto and junior Joao Casagrande won 8-1 against Oliver and Steward.
Head Coach Steve Barsby was pleased with the win.
“Our guys played well,” Barsby said. “Morehouse is a young team while we have an older, more experienced team.”
The men’s and women’s teams both suffered losses on Sunday against VSU’s squads, both of which were ranked No. 3 nationally, by 0-9 scores.
For the women’s team, senior Marjorie Ceppo lost to Dominique Rothlaender 6-1, 6-0. Junior Diane Danna lost to Natali Gumbrecht 6-0, 6-4. Senior Gabby Acuna lost 6-2, 6-3 to VSU’s Tina Trautmann. Freshman Adriana Acuna lost to Karine Redon 6-0, 6-0. Sophomore Bertille Lion was defeated 6-0, 6-1 by Raphaelle Durante. Freshman Angie Cuellar lost 6-0, 6-1 to Kristel de Groot.
The doubles matches also went in favor of VSU.
Ceppo and Gabby Acuna were defeated 8-1 against Rothlaender and Trautmann.
“We couldn’t play the way we liked to play and make our winners,” Ceppo said. “They were better than us.”
Danna and Lion suffered a loss to Redon and Durante 8-1. Adriana Acuna and Cuellar lost 8-0 against Gumbracht and de Groot.
The men’s team didn’t fare any better against VSU.
Yoshimoto and Casagrande kept the game alive by bring their doubles match to an extra game but lost 9-7 to Florian Halb and Otto Lenhart. Siqueria and Pickham lost against Joerg Ekkenga and Leos Jelinek.
“We (Siqueria and Pickham) tried very hard. The score didn’t [reflect] the match.” Siqueria said. “We played well except for the returns, which made all the difference. Little details make a big difference.”
Beliankou and Nucci lost 8-0 to Michael Kuech and Daniel Dueren.
In singles, the Bobcats accumulated more losses.
Siqueria, ranked No. 8 nationally, lost to No. 9 Halb 6-4, 6-1. Pickham lost 6-4, 6-4 to Dueren. Yoshimoto lost 6-2, 6-1 against Jelinek. Beliankou suffered a defeat to Ekkenga 6-3, 6-2. Nucci lost to Kuech 6-0, 6-1. Casagrande lost to Ben Cattan 6-3, 6-3.
Siqueria was optimistic about his team’s defeat at VSU.
“It’s never a good time to lose,” Siqueria said. “But if I had to choose, now would be a good time so we can use [this loss as a way] to improve and in more important matches we won’t make those mistakes [again].”
Barsby was disappointed with the loss at VSU.
“We went down there and got it handed to us. They were just at a different level,” Barsby said.
This weekend, both teams play at home against Newberry College on Saturday and Columbus State University on Sunday, the latter being a conference match.
Barsby feels good about the upcoming matches for both teams.
“Newberry has a few solid players. Every match will be a battle,” Barsby said. “Columbus State will be a huge match. They have solid teams. It’s going to be interesting.”
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Feb 13 2009. Filed under Sports.
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