Tide Tennis Wraps Regular-Season with Win Over Auburn
4/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?? The Alabama men’s tennis team defeated Auburn 4-2 Saturday to earn its second consecutive win over the Tigers and finish the year on a four-match winning streak.
Alabama needed to win four singles matches to get the win after dropping the doubles point. The Tide picked up key wins at the Nos. 3-6 positions in the line-up to pull out the win and improve to 13-11, 4-7 in the SEC. The clinching victory came from freshman Mathieu Thibaudeau at No. 3.
“For a freshman to clinch the match against Auburn, in this rivalry, is big,” Alabama head coach Billy Pate said. “It was a good match-up for us there, but he is starting to play better.”
Thibaudeau’s win not only clinched the victory for Alabama but also snapped his five-match losing streak.
Thibaudeau jumped up several breaks in front off his opponent, Milan Krnjetin, in the first set and cruised to a 6-2 first-set win. The second set then stayed on-serve until Thibaudeau, holding his fourth match-point of the game, finally converted with an ankle volley winner.
“Mat’s style takes longer to develop than a lot of other guys,” Pate said. “Today he did a better job of coming to the net and handling the serve.”
The Tide grabbed momentum early in singles. Five Tide players won their opening set and really set the tone for the rest of the match.
Billy Mertz and Dan Buikema put Alabama in front with convincing wins at No. 5 and No. 6 respectively. Both matches were won in straight sets and finished within 30 seconds of each other. Sammy Struyf then put Alabama one win away from clinching it with a straight-set win of his own at No. 4.
Over the last six matches now, Alabama is 16-2 at the bottom three positions in its line-up.
“That’s been a big key to our success,” Pate said, “especially Sammy’s emergence. He’s really come on for us this year and helped us get where we are now. We’re a balanced team and have developed good depth.”
“We’ve preached staying positive all year and keeping our heads up,” Pate said. “This group has been coachable and has really bought in to what we are doing here. I told them in the locker room afterwards that this win is big, but that even better days are ahead of us. Hopefully we’ll make some noise in the tournament.”
Alabama will host the SEC Tournament, set to begin next Thursday, and the Tide will turn around and attempt to defeat Auburn for the second time in less that week. The two teams will meet in the opening round at 2 p.m on Thursday at the UA Tennis Complex.
Tennis Match Results
Auburn vs Alabama
Apr 15, 2006 at Tuscaloosa, Ala.
#41 Alabama 4, #44 Auburn 2
Singles competition:
1. Robbert Lathouwers (AU) vs. #114 Joseph Jung (ALA) 5-7, 6-2, 1-0, unfinished
2. Nick Lane (AU) def. Javier Bes (ALA) 6-2, 6-2
3. Mathieu Thibaudeau (ALA) def. Milan Krnjetin (AU) 6-2, 6-4
4. Sammy Struyf (ALA) def. Lukas Marsoun (AU) 6-2, 6-4
5. Billy Mertz (ALA) def. Pawel Dilaj (AU) 6-3, 6-1
6. Dan Buikema (ALA) def. Terence Nugent (AU) 6-2, 6-1
Doubles competition:
1. Robbert Lathouwers/Lukas Marsoun (AU) def. Joseph Jung/Mathieu Thibaudeau (ALA) 8-3
2. Javier Bes/Billy Mertz (ALA) def. Pawel Dilaj/Milan Krnjetin (AU) 8-3
3. Terence Nugent/Nick Lane (AU) def. Dan Buikema/Andrew Felsenthal (ALA) 8-4
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (5,6,2,4,3,1)
