Dukes Fall 4-3 at Conference-Leading Louisiana

Saturday, April 1

Lafayette, La.

Noon ET (11 a.m. CT)

James Madison University

Louisiana

4/1/2023 5:04:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 1, 2023

Dukes Fall 4-3 at Conference-Leading Louisiana

LAFAYETTE, La. – James Madison men's tennis mounted a furious comeback in singles play, but conference-leading Louisiana earned a pair of three-set victories to upend the Dukes, 4-3, on Saturday afternoon at the Cajun Courts.

The Ragin' Cajuns improved to 11-6 on the year and remained unbeaten in Sun Belt Conference play with a 4-0 mark, while the Dukes dropped to 9-8 overall and 1-4 in league matches.

Louisiana won a pair of doubles matches and the teams split the six singles bouts to give the hosts the conference victory.

JMU got singles triumphs on courts two through four from Julian Lozano, Youssef Sadek and Francisco Sinopoli – all in straight sets. Matches on courts one and six also went to third sets.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Doubles Play

UL opened things up with tight wins on courts two and three.
The Cajuns gained the advantage on court three, where William Ribero and Alejandro Sanchez Gonzalez edged Sadek and Aathreya Mahesh, 6-4.
Shortly after, Alejo Ferrer Chueca and Kacper Dworak downed Lozano and Edson Sanchez, 7-5, on court two to earn the doubles point.
The final match on court one, featuring Holden Koons and Sinopoli against Vasil Dimitrov and Karlo Kajin, went unfinished tied at 6-6.

Singles Play

Louisiana doubled the lead to 2-0 on court five, as Calin Postea defeated Sanchez, 6-1, 6-2.
JMU got on the board over on court two, as Lozano was leading 7-5, 2-1 when Sanchez Gonzalez had to retire from the match due to injury.
The Dukes tied the match up at 2-2 on court three, where Sadek took a 6-4, 6-3 decision from Ferrer Chueca.
Coming down to the final three matches, two of which went the distance, Louisiana regained the lead on court six, as Ribero held off Mahesh, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1.
The deciding point would come on court one, as Kajin pulled away in the third to fend off Koons, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
Sinopoli closed things out with a thrilling win in tiebreak fashion, dispatching Dimitrov, 6-4, 7-6 (6), on court four. He trailed 6-5 in the tiebreak before winning three straight points to earn the set and match triumph.

UP NEXT
JMU is back in action on Sunday, April 2 when it travels to Hattiesburg, Miss., to take on Southern Miss. The opening serve is set for a noon start (11 a.m. CT).