Men’s Tennis: Cajuns Fight Back For Exciting Win At Georgia Southern

STATESBORO, Ga. – Never giving up, and fighting until the end, has been a trademark of the 2018 Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns men’s team and today, in their 4-3 exciting comeback win against the Georgia Southern Eagles at the Wallis Tennis Center, that determination to never stop fighting was on full display.
           
The comeback win, Louisiana’s seventh straight win, improves their record to 18-8, and in their first visit to Statesboro the Cajuns improve to 3-1 all-time against the Eagles.  As for Georgia Southern, the loss drops their record to 13-11 and it snaps a two-match winning streak, both of which had been against Sun Belt Conference opponents.
           
All but one of the singles matches went to three-sets, and it was senior Vlad Kramarov‘s three-set battle at No. 4 that finally clinched the win for the Cajuns.  Junior Arthur Libaud (No. 3) and sophomores Pearse Dolan (No. 5) and Jamie Fraser (No. 6) each added to the Cajuns hard earned comeback with Louisiana taking matches three through six to get the win.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Doubles): The Eagles took the doubles point to put the Cajuns in an early 1-0 hole, one that Louisiana would climb out of through singles.  But the Cajuns didn’t give up the doubles point without a fight, and they snagged the match at No. 3 when Libaud and Fraser beat Georgia Southern’s Suarez and Wagemaker, 6-4.
           
But the Eagles took the matches at No. 1 and No. 2 to lock up the point.  At No. 2 the Eagles’ Landin and McCullough beat Dolan and freshman Nico Sojka, 6-4.  And at No. 1 the Georgia Southern pairing of Amari and Di Aloy beat the Cajuns duo of Kramarov and sophomore Elio Lago, 7-5, to take a 1-0 lead into singles.

HOW IT HAPPENED (Singles): The Cajuns would get all four of their wins in singles from No. 3 on down, with all but one of the matches going to three-sets.  But Georgia Southern got two wins at the top two slots, when at No. 1 Stefano Di Aloy beat Sojka, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 and Eddie Landin beat Lago, 2-6, 6-0, 6-3.  Despite those two losses, the Cajuns made their point with those two matches going the distance and the rest of the team followed suit.
           
Libaud’s win at No. 3 was the only match that didn’t go a full three-sets, but it wasn’t easy for the Cajuns junior to get the win with both sets going into a tiebreaker.  But at the finish Libaud had beaten the Eagles’ Artemie Amari, 7-6, 7-6.  At No. 5 the Cajuns got another big win when Dolan took down Santiago Suarez, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2.
           
Dolan had to bounce back from losing the second set, but he tapped into the Cajuns spirit and controlled the final set to help keep the Cajuns rolling towards victory.  At No. 6 Fraser showed great determination to keep the Cajuns in the match, with a three-set win of Murphy McCullough, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3. 
           
After dropping the first set Fraser found he had his back against the wall, but he pushed back to take the second set in a breaker and Fraser rode that momentum to a big third set win.
           
At No. 4, in what turned into the matchup of the day, the Cajuns finished the comeback when Kramarov would not be beaten, winning back-to-back tiebreakers in both the second and third set to beat Pascal Wagemaker, 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, and lock up the Cajuns exciting 4-3 win.

NOTEWORTHY: The Cajuns are tying their eight-match winning streak from 2017; Libaud has now won eight straight matches (13-9 in singles); Dolan’s singles winning streak extends to six (16-4); Fraser has a five-match winning streak in singles (10-10); Kramarov has won four straight singles matches (16-8);
           
This is the second match during the Cajuns seven-match winning streak where they came back from losing the doubles point; Louisiana is 5-3 this season in matches that go the distance and they have to win the final match to clinch victory.

UP NEXT FOR THE CAJUNS: Louisiana wraps up their regular season schedule with a trip to Atlanta, Ga., where they’ll face off with the No. 61 Georgia State Panthers on Friday, Apr. 6 with that match starting at 1 p.m. CT.

FOLLOWING THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS: Follow the Cajuns on twitter (@RaginCajunsMT), Instagram (ragincajunsMT) and snapchat (ragincajunsmt) for updates during the matches, links to live stats and a link to the recap following the day’s action.

Louisiana 4, Georgia Southern 3
April 3, 2018 at Statesboro, Ga.
(Wallis Tennis Center)
Doubles:
1.) Amari. Di Aloy (GS) def. Lago/Kramarov (LA) 7-5
2.) Ladin/McCullough (GS) def. Sojka/Dolan (LA) 6-4
3.) Libaud/Fraser (LA) def. Suarez/Wagemaker (GS) 6-4
 
Singles:
1.) Stefano Di Aloy (GS) def. Nico Sojka (LA) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
2.) Eddie Landin (GS) def. Elio Lago (LA) 2-6, 6-0, 6-3
3.) Arthur Libaud (LA) def. Artemie Amari (GS) 7-6, 7-6
4.) Vlad Kramarov (LA) def. Pascal Wagemaker (GS) 4-6, 7-5, 7-6
5.) Pearse Dolan (LA) def. Santiago Suarez (GS) 6-0, 3-6, 6-2
6.) Jamie Fraser (LA) def. Murphy McCullough (GS) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
 
Records:
Louisiana: 18-8
Georgia Southern: 13-11