The Associated Press

April 24, 2004

MOBILE, Ala. — Second-seeded Louisiana had to struggle for the doubles point, but the Ragin’ Cajun tennis team cruised in singles in taking a 4-0 win over Denver Friday in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Conference Men’s Tennis Championships at the Mobile Tennis Center.

Louisiana (11-9) advance to today’s 9 a.m. semifinals against the winner of the Middle Tennessee-New Mexico State tilt. Seventh-seeded Denver (13-10) will play the loser of the MT-NMSU match at 3 p.m. today in consolation action.

The Cajuns escaped with the doubles point thanks to Marc Castellana and Evghenii Corduneanu’s thrilling 9-8 victory over Denver’s Nejc Smole and Hans-Peter Gaber.

Louisiana rolled to three straight-set win in singles, as Corduneanu, Amanjot Singh and Shaun Ellison combined to lose just 12 games in the three wins. Ellison’s win over Jason Tan was the clincher.

No. 2 Louisiana 4, No. 7 Denver 0

SINGLES — No. 1 Evghenii Corduneanu (UL) def. Nejc Smole (DU), 6-3, 6-1; No. 2 Amanjot Singh (UL) def. Urban Ljubic (DU), 6-1, 6-1; No. 3 Robin Ley (UL) vs. Hans-Peter Gaber (DU), DNF; No. 4 Marc Castellana (UL) vs. Viktor Zetterholm (DU), DNF; No. 5 Shaun Ellison (UL) def. Jason Tan (DU), 7-5, 6-1; No. 6 Ivan Kovalev (UL) vs. Niki Popovic (DU), DNF

DOUBLES — No. 1 Castanella-Corduneanu (UL) def. Smole-Gaber (DU), 9-8; No. 2 Tan-Zetterholm (DU) def. Kovalev-Singh (UL), 8-3; No. 3 Ley-Ellison (UL) def. Ljubic-Popovic (DU), 8-5

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