Tennis teams compete at Dillard Invitational

NEW ORLEANS – The Loyola University New Orleans men's and women's tennis teams competed over the weekend in a tournament hosted by Dillard University. The event featured competition from Xavier, Dillard, Louisiana Christian, LSU Alexandria, LSU Shreveport, and Southeastern Louisiana. 

In the women's tournament, Reilly Briggs, Ana Cecilia Castillo, and Avery Frierson played in singles, and freshman Bianca Harris made her Wolf Pack debut in singles. Briggs and Castillo played together in doubles, as did Frierson and Adele Fereres. Frierson and Fereres won their first match in the doubles A draw, defeating freshmen Nahia Echaide and Gianna Panaggio of LSU Alexandria before falling in a tiebreak against a team from Louisiana Christian in the next round. 

Loyola's men's team posted some solid results at the tournament. Freshmen Alfredo Gallegos and Jett Nguyen made their debuts for the Pack, competing in singles and doubles together. Remus Hebhang-Balan, Martin Ashworth, Akhil Indrabalan, and Sam Izrael also entered the singles tournament, with Izrael and Samuel Motazed playing together in doubles. 

Both Wolf Pack men's doubles teams lost in the main singles draw but had success in the back draw. Motazed and Izrael won 6-4 against a team from Dillard. Nguyen and Gallegos also defeated a team from Dillard 6-0. Then, the two Loyola squads faced off, with Izrael and Motazed coming out on top, 6-1. 

In singles, Izrael earned another win, 6-3, 6-2, over Dillard's Tarique Tonge before falling against a Xavier player in the main draw semifinal. The singles B draw again pitted two Loyola players against each other. After Gallegos won his first match against Dillard's Matthias Bigot (6-0, 7-5), he faced Loyola's graduate student Hebhang-Balan, who had a bye, in the quarterfinal. The freshman prevailed in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3 but lost to a Xavier player in the semifinal after a close third set super tiebreak.

After falling in the first round in singles, Nguyen played well in the back draw. He won 6-3, 6-3 against Dillard's Bigot, who lost to Gallegos in the first round. He followed that up with a win against Dillard's David Zach: 6-3, 6-1.