TAMPA, Fla. – No. 67 New Mexico State’s upset bid of No. 40 South Florida came up one point short as the Bulls used their home court advantage to beat the Aggies, 4-3, Thursday at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts in men’s tennis action.
The loss drops NM State’s record back to 10-6 on the year and all six of New Mexico State’s losses have come to teams that were either ranked at the time or are currently in the national rankings. USF improves to 10-5 on the year with the win.
Head coach Don Ball said that it was a good match for his team playing in tough conditions with 85 degree heat and 80 percent humidity.
“We competed really well and played great in singles today,” Ball said. “It was a good match, but we’re kind of tired of playing good ranked teams and coming up a point short. The one thing that is encouraging is that we are getting used to these conditions because we will be playing in the heat and humidity at sea level in Hawai’i for the conference championships.”
New Mexico State fell behind 1-0 after losing all three doubles tilts to start the match. The Aggies would battle back to tie the match at two by winning two of the first three singles matches off the courts.
Sophomore Arthur Surreaux won his 12th match of the season, as he downed Mahmoud Hamed in straight sets at No. 3. Senior Roman Stoisavljevic ended his six-match losing streak with his win over Jamal Adderley at No. 4.
The match went on to be tied at three before the Bulls pulled out the win by winning the No. 1 singles match. Sophomore Jim Brouleau came up just short against No. 70 Lucas Jovita, 7-5, 6-4. That was the last match off the courts and the first set, which Brouleau fell in a tiebreaker, took over an hour and a half alone.
New Mexico State has one more match remaining in Florida before opening conference play. The Aggies face Brown on Saturday in Tampa and is set to begin at 8:00 a.m. MT.
USF 4, NMSU 3
March 26, 2009
USF Varsity Tennis Courts
Doubles
1. No. 27 Lucas Jovita/ Thomas Estrada def Roman Stoisavljevic/Eduardo Salas 8-2
2. Mahmoud Hamed/Jamal Adderley def. Jim Brouleau/Arthur Surreaux (NMSU-M) 8-4
3. Wael Kilani/ Yannick Yoshizawa def. Gustave Diep/Stefan McKinney 8-5
Finish Order:1, 2, 3
Singles
1. No. 70 Lucas Jovita(USF) def. Jim Brovloau (NMSU-M) 7-6, 6-4
2. No. 95 Wael Kilani (USF) def. Gustave Diep (NMSU-M) 6-4, 6-3
3. Arthur Surreaux (NMSU-M) def. Mahmoud Hamed (USF) 6-4, 7-6
4. Roman Stoisavljevic (NMSU-M) def. Jamal Adderley (USF) – 7-5, 6-3
5. Romain Deridder (USF) def. Matej Stakne (NMSU-M) 6-4, 6-2
6. Stefan McKinney (NMSU-M) def. Yannick Yoshizawa (USF) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
Finish Order: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1
