Tough luck. They had a good run.
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Tough luck. They had a good run.
Where did they finish in the standings?
<blockquote><p align=justify><b>Cajuns fall short in Sun Belt finals</b>
MOBILE, Ala. — Louisiana’s hopes for a Sun Belt Conference men’s tennis title came up one match short here Sunday, as host and top-seeded South Alabama rolled to a 4-0 shutout win in the championship match at USA’s Lubel Courts.
USA (18-5), winning its sixth straight men’s title and its 11th in the last 13 seasons, took the doubles point and claimed three singles matches in straight sets to earn the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA Regional Tournament.
The 56th-ranked Cajuns (12-10), having a four-match win streak snapped, had taken wins over Denver and Middle Tennessee to advance to Sunday’s finals. UL Lafayette, which won the Sun Belt titles in 1992 and 1998, will hope for an at-large berth to the NCAA regionals.
The host Jaguars got a strong performance from No. 2 player Clinton Jacobs, who downed UL Lafayette’s Ananjot Singh 6-0, 6-2 for USA’s first singles point. Jacobs, who went 2-0 in singles and 3-0 in doubles in the tournament, was voted the event’s Most Outstanding Player for the second straight year.
“Jacobs had an unbelievable tournament,” said Cajun coach Justin McGrath. “He was in a zone. His win over Ananjot was really big for them.”
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No. 37-ranked Franticek Babej beat No. 112 Cajun Evghenii Corduneanu 6-3, 6-2 at No. 1 singles to close out the match, after Jaguar No. 6 player Jorgen Vestli beat UL Lafayette’s Ivan Kovalev 6-2, 6-3. USA took wins at the No. 1 and 2 positions to take the doubles point.
“We’ve progressed so well as a team as the year has gone on,” said USA coach Scott Novak. “It’s fun to see these guys do this. Clinton raises his game for the conference tournament, and this big crowd just makes him play better.”
The Cajuns finished their season with wins in six of their last nine matches and had their best finish in the Sun Belt meet since a runner-up finish to USA in 2000.
“I am really proud of these guys,” McGrath said. “They really came together as a team. This is just a tough environment to play in, and we just didn’t handle it well.”
Earlier Sunday, Denver upset No. 1-seeded USA's women's team 4-2, denying the Jaguars their 13th consecutive conference championship.
Sun Belt Conference Championship Match
South Alabama 4, UL Lafayette 0 (men)
SINGLES — No. 1 (37) Franticek Babej (USA) def. (112) Evghenii Corduneanu (UL) 6-3, 6-2; No. 2 Clinton Jacobs (USA) def. Ananjot Singh (UL) 6-0, 6-2; No. 3 Pavel Mazaev (USA) vs. Robin Ley (UL), DNF; No. 4 David Kepka (USA) vs. Marc Castellana (UL), DNF; No. 5 Evan Fowler (USA) vs. Shaun Ellison (UL), DNF; No. 6 Jorgen Vestli (USA) def. Ivan Kovalev (UL) 6-2, 6-3.
DOUBLES — No. 1 Babej-Kepka (USA) def. Corduneanu-Castellana (UL) 8-5; No. 2 Fowler-Jacobs (USA) def. Kovalev-Singh (UL) 8-6; No. 3 Vestli-Mazaev (USA) vs. Ellison-Ley (UL), DNF.
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