No. 20 Alabama Men’s Tennis Eases Past No. 18 LSU, 5-2, to Start SEC Play

Friday, March 1

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

6 p.m. CT

Alabama

LSU

Photo by: Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athleti

No. 20 Alabama Men’s Tennis Eases Past No. 18 LSU, 5-2, to Start SEC Play

3/1/2019 10:26:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Results (PDF)Photo Gallery

The Crimson Tide clinched the match at 4-0

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Sophomore Riccardo Roberto clinched the match at 4-0 for the 20^th-ranked Alabama men's tennis team before No. 18 LSU won two out of the last three matches to make the final score, 5-2, in favor of UA on Friday night at the Alabama Tennis Stadium.

With the victory the Crimson Tide improves to 11-2 on the season and 1-0 to begin conference play, while the Tigers drop to 11-2 and 0-1 in SEC competition. The Tide starts conference play at 1-0 for the first time since the 2016 dual match season, when UA opened up with a 5-2 victory at South Carolina.

"I thought doubles play was a little up and down, but we prevailed," said head coach George Husack. "We came up with two big victories and we had a really great start in singles winning the first five out of six set, I thought that made a statement. I thought Mazen (Osama) also made as statement with a quick win. LSU is really tough, but we got after it and had a good finish to the night."

In doubles action it was down to court one to clinch the deciding point. Senior Mazen Osama and sophomore Patrick Kaukovalta fell down 3-0 to No. 45 Thomas/Wagner before coming all the way back to win 6-4 and give the Tide the early 1-0 advantage.

Alabama carried its momentum into singles play with No. 32 Osama handling No. 112 Shane Monroe, 6-2, 6-2, to extend the lead to 2-0. Shortly after, junior Edson Ortiz added another point to the Tide's total with a 6-2, 7-5, victory after trailing 5-2 in the second set on court two. Later in the match, Roberto battled to a 7-6(4), 6-3, win on court six to seal the win for the Crimson Tide.

The two teams played out the rest of the matches, with junior Alexey Nesterov finishing his match on court five with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, triumph over Joey Thomas to end the match at 5-2.

Alabama will return to action for its second match of the weekend when it hosts Texas A&M at the Alabama Tennis Stadium on Sunday, March 3 at 12 p.m. CT. The match will be streamed live on RollTide.com.

Alabama Results

Doubles

Osama/Kaukovalta def. No. 45 Wagner/Thomas, 6-4
Cancel/Nesterov def. Monroe/Moreno, 6-3
Kozlov/Watson def. Ortiz/Zhou, 6-2

Order of Finish: 3, 2, 1

Singles

No. 32 Mazen Osama def. No. 112 Shane Monroe, 6-2, 6-2
Edson Ortiz def. Rafael Wagner, 6-2, 7-5
Malik Bhatnagar def. No. 108 Patrick Kaukovalta, 6-4, 7-6(3)
Boris Koslov def. Zhe Zhou, 1-6, 6-1, 7-5
Alexey Nesterov def. Joey Thomas, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5
Riccardo Roberto def. Nick Watson, 7-6(4), 6-3

Order of Finish: 1, 2, 6, 3, 4, 5

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