April 15, 2011

Arlington, Texas - UT Arlington men's tennis team recorded their second conference win of the season against Nicholls State 4-3 Friday at the Colonel Tennis Complex. The Mavs improved their record to 11-8 overall and 2-2 in conference play.

"Today was a great victory for our team," said head coach Diego Benitez. "Conference matches are always a different level and today we played great tennis in tough conditions."

In the No. 2 position, Yauheni Yakauleu and Nicolas Moreno were the first win to finish their match, recording an 8-5 win over Shayaan Vaezzadeh and Matshidiso Malope.

Next to finish was the most dominate of the doubles teams, as Lucas Leppin and senior Brieuc Hamon posted an 9-8 (7-1) victory against Damjin Despotovski and Palash Tiwari.

The top doubles team of Mindaugas Celedinas and David Subirats dropped a 9-7 decision to Roy Knight and Dmitry Kozionov.

In singles action, Nicholls took the first two matches and made the Mavs fight to get the win.

At the No. 5 spot, Palash Tiwari defeated Erik Hjertonsson 6-2, 6-1 while Kozionov handed Yakauleu a loss of 6-4, 6-4 in the No. 3 position.

UTA took the next match with Nicolas Moreno recording a 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) against Razvan Cojocaru.

The Colonels then took a 3-2 advantage when Despotovski dealt a hard fought loss to Celedinas 7-5, 7-6 in the top flight.

But the Mavs took the last two matches into three sets and were able to come through with the win.

Leppin was the first to bring the match back to a tie of 3-3 by taking down Shayann Vaezzadeh in the No. 2 spot, 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, and 6-3.

Subirats was the final match to conclude at the No. 4 position when he sealed the win for the Mavs over Malope with a score of 6-2, 6-7 (5-7) and 6-4.

The men travel on to Lamar tomorrow to play another conference match at the Thompson Family Tennis Center. Match is set for 1 p.m.