Men’s Tennis: UL tennis blanks USM Golden Eagles in singles, doubles

Bruce Brown, Special to the Advertiser, Feb. 9, 2019

UL tennis coach Mark Jeffrey watched his team outpoint visiting Southern Mississippi 4-0 on Saturday at Cajun Courts, then told his squad in no uncertain terms just how much better they could be.

“Southern Miss had two players out of the lineup today, so obviously they weren’t as strong as they would normally be,” said Jeffrey, whose team improved to 9-2 in dual match play.

“My concern is that I want us to give it 100 percent, every time out. When we don’t do that, I get very upset. We made the match a lot closer than it should have been.”

The Cajuns won the doubles point to start the day, and unbeaten junior Jamie Frazier easily dispatched Panji Sehiawan 6-0, 6-1 at No. 6 singles. Freshman Jan Galka was also solid, dusting off Jorman Reyes 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2.

Lone senior Arthur Libaud drew large cheers and shouts of “Frenchie” when he locked up the victory with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Youssef Tamimount at No. 5.

But Jeffrey saw much work that needs to be done.

“We were too inconsistent across the board,” he said. “We’re not competing at a higher level. Playing like we did, we don’t win conference (the Sun Belt Conference) today.

“We needed to kick these guys so our players would understand, You can lose and get better. We lost to Penn State, but improved. And you can win and take a step backwards. We didn’t grow today.”

Still, the Cajuns are showing signs of contending for the Sun Belt title if they retain the focus and drive Jeffrey demands.

That renewed focus should be on display in next weekend’s Ragin’ Cajun Invitational.

Cajuns 4, Golden Eagles 0

DOUBLES POINT: 1. Pearce Dolan-Arthur Libaud def. Romit Bisht, 6-1. 2, Jan Galka-Keegan Dvorzyk def. Chunghung Tsai-Mieszko Kwasnieski, 6-2.

COMPLETED SINGLES: 2. Jan Galka def. Matthieu Peres, 6-3, 6-3. 5. Arthur Libaud def. Youssef Tamimount, 6-2, 7-5. 6. Jamie Fraser def. Pangi Setiawan, 6-0, 6-1.