With the Bulldog netters needing to win one more match, Louis Cant took down Victor Melo to seal the Bulldog men’s tennis team a home victory on Saturday over the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee State University.
“It was a really intense match, I was really nervous in the end because it was going to come down to my match,” Cant said. “Everybody was supporting me. The team helped me to go through this match, and we won in the end, so it was great.”
Cant had a right to be nervous during a match he won in the third set, a set that had five different match points. However, the sophomore sensation who hails from Brugge, Belgium, is now 8-0 and ranked No. 64 nationally. His confidence and record are growing quickly because of his focus and work ethic.
“You think about just take it match for match, you don’t think … about the match before, if you win or lose, just like, start your match and you want to win, that’s just the thing,” he said.
Cant’s clutch performance was much needed because the Bulldogs were busy trying to make up in singles matches for their poor performance in the doubles.
At the No. 1 spot, George Coupland and Artem Ilyushin lost their doubles match to Blue Raiders John Peers and Kyle Wishing in an 8-1 decision. Shortly after, Melo and Matthew Langly defeated MSU’s Antonio Lastre and Daniel Sanchez in an 8-3 decision.
Cant and Christopher Doerr took down MTSU’s Richard Cowden and Shaun Waters 8 -6 in the No. 3 spot, giving the Bulldogs their only doubles victory on the day.
Head coach Per Nilsson said he was very disappointed with the doubles play, saying that victory can not rely so heavily on singles matches.
“I was not very happy with doubles, this is probably the worst we’ve played doubles all year,” Nilsson said. “We can not continue to play doubles like that because being down 1-0 and having to win four out of six singles is really difficult.”
After Ilyushin’s straight set victory over MTSU’s Cowden, Lastre defeated Blue Raider Alex McCann, 6-2, 6-1. Lastre, a junior from Malaga, Spain, improved his record to 6-2 on the season. He is currently ranked No. 122 nationally.
George Coupland’s close loss to Blue Raider Peers dropped the Bulldog lead to one, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. The Hatfield, England, native’s national ranking has dropped from 42nd to 85th. His struggle is frustrating, because he competes in the team’s No. 1 spot. Despite his setback, Nilsson said he still has confidence in Coupland.
“We had a talk, and, you know, he didn’t win today, but he played a really good player and gave himself a chance,” he said.
Sanchez defeated MTSU’s Langley in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2. The first set became a thriller as Sanchez found himself down 5-2 before winning five straight games to take the set. His victory gave the Bulldogs a comfortable two point lead before Cant’s victory clinched the match.
Not to be outdone by the men, the women’s tennis team had its own hero on Sunday in Olesya Tsigvintseva, whose victory in the No. 1 spot broke a 3-3 score with Louisiana-Monroe to give the women the victory.
Tsigvintseva won 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 over Louisiana-Monroe’s Claire Clark.
“The matchup wasn’t a good matchup for her,” women’s head coach Daryl Greenan said. “I just give her all the credit for finding a way to get it done.”
Unlike the men, the lady Bulldogs were much more successful in doubles matchups as Radka Ferancova and Marila Ryzhova opened the day with a victor over ULM’s Jourdan Smith and Lena Satge, 8-1. On the other court, Tsigvintseva and Natalia Mayuk, both natives of Russia, defeated Monroe’s Clark and Monica Winkel in an 8-3 decision.
Valeryia Makarycheva and Elizabeth Hall of MSU fell to ULM’s Vivian Polak and Ana Burjaili, 8-2. It was Hall’s first match of the spring.
For the lady Bulldogs, it was third consecutive victory, improving the team’s record to 4-1 on the year.