NEW ORLEANS – The Loyola University New Orleans men's and women's tennis teams each took on highly ranked William Carey on Tuesday in the second conference match of the season for both teams.
The No. 7 Crusader men were too much for Loyola, as they won with a 6-1 result, but the No. 14 Wolf Pack women took down No. 10 Carey for the first time in program history by a score of 5-2.
Loyola's women's team is now 7-3 on the season, 2-0 in conference play with the win, sitting atop the Southern States Athletic Conference standings as the only team with two wins. Both men's and women's tennis teams will take a break from conference action in two matches at home next week, starting with Millsaps College on Monday, March 20, at noon.
Lucy Carpenter and Fatima Vasquez made sure the Pack started the match on a high note, as they dominated 6-0 in their No. 1 doubles match. The Wolf Pack then wrapped up the doubles point with Micaela Ponce and Ariana Salgueiro-Estela winning 6-3 on court 2.
In singles, Loyola added another point quickly, as Salgueiro-Estela's opponent retired due to injury. The Wolf Pack needed two more singles wins to claim the match, but Carey would not make it easy, winning on courts 1 and 6 to tie up the match.
The Wolf Pack took care of business on the remaining three courts, however. Ponce won in three sets (6-4, 5-7, 6-3) to improve to 5-1 at No. 2 singles this season. Then Fatima Vasquez, who won a long first set in a tiebreak, took her match 7-6 (7-3), 0-6, 6-1 to clinch the match for the Pack. With the match already decided, the Pack got their fifth point from Adele Fereres after she won a hard-fought Court 5 match, 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5.
In the men's match, SSAC Player of the Week Francisco Javier Arce Vieyra continued his successful season with wins at both No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles. In singles, Arce Vieyra earned a straight sets victory: 6-3, 7-6. In doubles, he and Samuel Motazed won 6-3 to improve to 4-1 this season at No. 1 doubles. Herman Aure also came back to force a third set in his match but lost in the super tiebreak as Carey took the match 6-1.
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.
"This was a match that we were looking forward to since last year when we played them in Hattiesburg. We have never played them at home since I've been the coach, so I've been looking forward to that as well.
The last 2-3 weeks, we've been looking to make improvements in terms of our mental toughness and embracing not always needing to play perfect tennis to play winning tennis, and that's what we accomplished today. We did what we needed to do on each court to give ourselves an opportunity to win and we handled different adversities, something we wanted to see win or lose today. Thankfully, that was enough for us to win, and that's what we've been working towards.
Hopefully, we can continue on that track, learning how to play for each other and pushing each other in practice and get ready for this conference run. We know we're one of the strongest teams in the conference, and we need wins like this to continue that progress. I'm really proud of the girls for the work they've been putting in and their belief in what we're doing and what we're building."
Women's Results
No. 14 Loyola – 5
No. 10 William Carey – 2
Doubles
1. #10 L. Carpenter/Vasquez (LOYNO) def. Westkamp/Abarkane (WCU) 6-0
2. #13 Ponce/Salgueiro-Estela (LOYNO) def. Ortega/Chang (WCU) 6-3
3. A. Fereres/Frierson (LOYNO) vs Logan/Koch (WCU) 2-5, unfinished
Order of finish: 1, 2
Singles
1. #6 Jordan Ortega Mendez (WCU) def. Lucy Carpenter (LOYNO) 6-1, 6-2
2. Micaela Ponce (LOYNO) def. Emelie Koch (WCU) 6-4, 5-7, 6-3
3. Fatima Vasquez (LOYNO) def. #8 Malak Abarkane (WCU) 7-6 (7-3), 0-6, 6-1
4. Ariana Salgueiro-Estela (LOYNO) def. Nina Westkamp (WCU) 6-0, retired
5. Adele Fereres (LOYNO) def. Tiffany Chang (WCU) 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5
6. Sunny Logan (WCU) def. Leonie Schmidt (LOYNO) 6-3, 6-3
Order of finish: 4, 6, 1, 2, 3, 5
Men's Results
Loyola – 1
No. 7 William Carey – 6
Doubles
1. Arce Vieyra/Motazed (LOYNO) def. Drapeau/LeBlanc (WCU) 6-3
2. Urinov/Shearer (WCU) def. Duchier/Matz (LOYNO) 6-2
3. Magnusson/Rockstroh (WCU) def. Aure/Hebhang-Balan (LOYNO) 6-4
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
Singles
1. Francisco Javier Arce Vieyra (LOYNO) def. Ibrokhimjon Urinov (WCU) 6-3, 7-6
2. Thomas Drapeau (WCU) def. Theo Debackere (LOYNO) 6-3, 6-3
3. Noah Rockstroh (WCU) def. Remus Hebhang-Balan (LOYNO) 6-1, 6-1
4. Anton Magnusson (WCU) def. Aubin Duchier (LOYNO) 6-2, 6-3
5. Matt Shearer (WCU) def. Samuel Motazed (LOYNO) 6-2, 7-5
6. Jean Nicolas LeBlanc (WCU) def. Herman Aure (LOYNO) 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 10-8
Order of finish: 3, 4, 5, 2, 1, 6
