Ty Ammons
Staff Writer
The men’s and women’s tennis teams both played two teams each this past weekend. The men’s team played the University of Southern Mississippi Eagles and No. 19 Ole Miss. The women’s team played the UNC Wilmington Seahawks and the North Florida Ospreys.
The men’s first match at home this season was against the Southern Miss Eagles, and Troy won all of its matches except for the line three doubles match.
On Saturday, Feb. 7, junior Gabriel Dias defeated junior Tarun Surat 6-2, 6-3. Sophomore Hassan Ndayishimye won his third three-set match after defeating sophomore Wen-Po Tseng. Freshman Andy Lau won 6-1, 7-5 against sophomore Chao-Yu Huang.
Junior Daniel Bustamante won 6-4, 6-2 against grayshirt Alex Doleac. Junior Giovani Samaha defeated junior Rakshit Rishi 6-0, 7-5, and sophomore Pablo Moreno won 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 against freshman Daniel Merker.
In line one doubles, Ndayishimye and Lau defeated Tseng and Huang 6-2. Moreno and Dias won line two doubles against Surat and Doleac 7-5. Merker and senior Brad Marriott defeated Troy’s sophomore Andre Baldo and junior William McClelland 6-2.
The men’s matchup against Ole Miss was postponed from Sunday to Monday, Feb. 9, in Oxford, Mississippi. Troy won three of its six single matches and lost all three doubles. Bustamante won his line four singles match against freshman Zvonimir Babic 2-6, 6-3, 10-8. Samaha won his line five singles match 6-3, 6-2 against sophomore Ricardo Jorge, and Moreno defeated freshman Grey Hamilton 6-4, 6-4. The men’s record this season so far is 5-4.
The women’s team played UNC Wilmington in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday, Feb. 7, and won all but one singles and one doubles match. Freshman Sanae Ohta defeated sophomore Annika Sillanpaa 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Junior Trang Huynh won 6-3, 6-3 against senior Alyssa Ritchie.
Junior Anja Cosovic defeated junior Christine Kharkevitch 4-6, 7-5, 10-4. Freshman Jiayuan Xue won line four singles 6-1, 6-3 against sophomore Alix Theodossiou and junior Margot De Haan defeated freshman Christin Kaupper 6-1, 6-2.
Cosovic and Huynh won line one doubles against Kharkevitch and Sillanpaa 6-4, and junior Brooke Durden and freshman Linnea Skymberg won their match 6-4 against Theodossiou and Kaupper.
Troy lost its matchup against North Florida on Sunday, Feb. 8. Troy only came away with two singles wins and one doubles win. Huynh defeated senior Esther Zuniga 6-2, 6-1 and Cosovic won 6-3, 7-5 against senior Marina Cunningham. Cosovic and Huynh defeated Cunningham and senior Taylor Hollander 6-2 in line one doubles.
The men’s tennis team’s next match is against Florida Gulf Coast at Daytona Beach, Florida, on Friday, Feb. 13, and plays Stetson in DeLand, Florida, on Saturday, Feb. 14.
The women’s tennis team’s next match is Sunday, Feb. 15, against Auburn, and then it has its first home match on Tuesday, Feb. 17, against Jacksonville State at 2 p.m.
