NEW ORLEANS – The Loyola Wolf Pack men's and women's tennis teams played their final tournament of the fall semester over the weekend, as both teams competed at the Dillard Invitational.
Dillard University, which joined the Southern States Athletic Conference as an affiliate member in tennis last season, hosted players from Loyola, Xavier, and Southeastern Louisiana at the newly refurbished tennis courts on the Bleu Devils campus. The Wolf Pack had by far the largest representation at the tournament, with 19 out of the 49 total participants.
It was a successful end to the fall schedule, as several players from both the Wolf Pack men's and women's teams competed in the finals of both the singles and doubles brackets.
Francisco Javier Arce Vieyra and Samuel Motazed were dominant in the men's doubles draw. On Saturday, they defeated two teams from Xavier and were crowned doubles champions. In the championship match, Arce and Motazed won 8-3 over the Gold Rush team of Jered Wilson and Nereo Suarez.
Micaela Ponce and Ariana Salgueiro-Estela, fresh off of a trip to the ITA Cup, reached the women's doubles finals against Gabrielle Dekkers and Panatchakorn Suanarsa from Southeastern. Loyola's duo had a chance to clinch the match at championship point, but the Lions team ended up coming back to win the match in 9-8 (7-5) in a tiebreak.
Singles competition was separated into three different brackets, and the women's singles C finals was an all-Loyola affair. In a third set super tiebreak, freshman Leonie Schmidt defeated Elly Carpenter 5-7, 6-1, 13-11 to win the draw.
Aubin Duchier made the finals of the men's singles B draw, but fell to Xavier's VanDer Woody 6-3, 7-5.
"Great conclusion to our fall tournaments. We grew as a team this weekend and competed incredibly well. We got stronger as the event progressed by showing great toughness against solid competition. We saw today what our potential can be if we believe in ourselves and play for each other.
It was another historic fall for our program and what we're building at Loyola. I'm so happy for our players to finally see what they can do with a normal fall season. So many of us dealt with so much over the past 3 years between COVID restrictions and Hurricane Ida disruptions. Their resilience has been inspiring to witness. I could not be more proud.
We have big goals and dreams for this spring. We have a lot of work to do on and off the court to realize our full potential. I couldn't be more excited for our team season and to see how much we grow from here."
You can keep up with the Pack by following Wolf Pack Athletics on Facebook at Facebook.com/LoyolaWolfPack, Twitter and Instagram @LoyolaWolfPack, and by checking out our website at LoyolaWolfPack.com.
