Box Score PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – Despite a two-hour delay, a change in venue from outdoors to indoors and a match which lasted 3-and-a-half hours well into the chilly Georgia evening, the 4th-seeded UT Arlington men's tennis team knocked off 5th-seeded Louisiana, 4-2, in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament quarterfinals Friday at Peachtree Tennis Center.
 
Enrique Pardo played the role of hero for UTA as the senior delivered the service winner in the final doubles match to give the Mavericks that crucial point, and then clinched the match with a backhand winner at No. 1 singles to stave off a Louisiana comeback and defeat the Ragin' Cajuns for the second time in six days.
 
With the win, UTA advances to face top-seeded Georgia State in the semifinals on Saturday at 3 p.m. Eastern (2 Central). The Panthers easily dispatched of 8th-seeded Appalachian State, 4-0, in less than two hours, and a few of the singles matches didn't even get started.
 
Originally scheduled to start at 5 p.m. local and be played outdoors, the match was moved to the facility's indoor courts but then delayed by another two hours as the Mavs and Ragin' Cajuns waited out the end of the quarterfinal match before them and were given warmup time.
 
While UTA and Louisiana waited, the other quarterfinal on the bottom of the bracket got underway shortly after 5 p.m. as the Mountaineers and Panthers played their three doubles matches on three of the six unoccupied, covered courts before moving into singles action on those same three courts – which is where GSU quickly picked up straight-set wins at Nos. 1-3; No. 4 played one game and Nos. 5-6 didn't even reach first serve.
 
While GSU was wrapping up its win on the other side of the indoor facility, UTA got started with Louisiana as Guanarteme Nuez and Mauricio Rio claimed the first doubles match on Court 1, 6-4, but Louisiana quickly evened things up with a triumph on Court 3. That turned all the focus to Court 2, and – serving up 5-4 and 40-15 in the game – Pardo delivered the service winner to clinch not only the match but the important doubles point to put UTA in front, 1-0.
 
Rio continued his momentum and picked up the first singles win of the night for UTA with a 6-3, 6-4 triumph on Court 3 – a victory accentuated by a highlight-reel between-the-legs match-point winner (watch the video).
 
However, on Court 2 directly to his right, Rio watched Louisiana claim a win as Nuez fell in uncharacteristic form, 5-7, 0-6.
 
But moments after the Ragin' Cajuns pulled within 2-1 in the match, Alejandro Hayen emerged victorious on Court 4 with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 decision to get the Mavs within one point of advancing.
 
But a Louisiana win on Court 6 in three sets brought the Ragin' Cajuns back within one, 3-2, turning the attention to decisive final sets on courts 1 and 5.
 
And Court 1 was where Pardo put on his heroics again, overcoming a 1st-set tiebreaker loss, 6-7, but rebounding with a 6-4 win in the 2nd set before claiming the match for himself and the Mavs courtesy of a 6-3 triumph which was capped by the aforementioned backhand winner (watch the video).
 
The contest was a rematch of the regular-season finale between UTA and Louisiana this past Sunday – a 4-0 Mavs' sweep in Arlington on Senior Day.
 
"We knew it was going to be a completely different story today; we knew they were going to fight on every single court," Pardo said in regards to the shutout on Sunday. "It was a battle. I don't think we played our best tennis, but at the end of the night we got the win.
 
"I was a bit nervous, I won't lie," Pardo added in reference to serving for the match. "We broke each other a lot and I didn't serve well today, but I got that game. And I knew the backhand was going in."
 
On the top half of the bracket, 2nd-seeded South Alabama swept 7th-seeded Troy, 4-0, while 3rd-seeded Coastal Carolina made a late comeback to 6th-seeded Georgia Southern, 4-3. That semifinal match is scheduled to run alongside UTA's and Georgia State's on Saturday afternoon, but weather is expected to impact outdoor play again.
 
Fans can follow along with the semifinal action in a myriad of ways: watch on ESPN+, listen on Radio Tennis, track live scoring on Tennis Ticker or engage on Twitter @UTAMavsTennis. Additionally, for any schedule changes or adjustments, be sure to follow Twitter.
 
2019 SUN BELT TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
Singles
1. Enrique Pardo (UTA) def. Jan Galka (ULL): 6-7, 6-4, 6-3
2. Pearse Dolan (ULL) def. Guanarteme Nuez (UTA): 7-5, 6-0
3. Mauricio Rio (UTA) def. Elio Lago (ULL): 6-3, 6-4
4. Alejandro Hayen (UTA) def. Arthur Libaud (ULL): 6-3, 1-6, 6-1
5. Miguel Cabrera (UTA) vs. Jamie Fraser (ULL): 2-6, 7-6, 2-2 (Unfinished)
6. Kacper Dworak (ULL) def. Jakub Grzegorczyk (UTA): 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
Order Of Finish: 3, 2, 4, 6, 1
 
Doubles
1. Rio/Nuez (UTA) def. Dolan/Libaud (ULL): 6-4
2. Pardo/Simo (UTA) def. Galka/Dworak (ULL): 6-4
3. Lago/Fraser (ULL) def. Hayen/Cabrera (UTA): 6-3
Order Of Finish: 1, 3, 2