Men’s tennis competes at ITA Regional

THIBODAUX, La. – The Loyola University New Orleans men's tennis team took part in its first tournament of the fall schedule as the new season officially began with the 2025 ITA Gulf Regional. Loyola's matches were held Friday and Saturday at the Thibodaux Regional Sports Complex at Nicholls State University. 

Seven different Wolf Pack players competed over the weekend, including five of the top six in singles wins from last season (Alfredo Gallegos, Sam Izrael, Hippolyte de Preville, Spencer Matz, and Jett Nguyen). Additionally, one of last year's best doubles players, Samuel Motazed, played in both singles and doubles, as did Samuel Marin, who previously played for the Wolf Pack from 2018 to 2021. 

Matz and Motazed played the first matches of the day on Friday, and both Wolf Pack players grinded out tough wins in third-set super tiebreaks. Matz dropped the first set but eventually won 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 10-7 over Our Lady of the Lake's Jacob Gailey, while Motazed had all three sets go to tiebreaks against Alvaro Tormo Lopez from Texas A&M Texarkana: 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-5), 10-4. Both would go on to lose in the following round. 

Starting a bit later Friday morning, Gallegos and de Preville both won the first set in their matches but lost in third-set super tiebreaks. 

Gallegos and Motazed played excellently together to win Loyola's first doubles match of the tournament, 8-3 against a team from Texarkana, before running into the top overall seed in the next round. 

The French senior duo of Izrael and de Preville also won a doubles match 8-3 on Friday, taking down a team from Dillard before a quarterfinal loss against the No. 4 seed from William Carey. The consolation singles draw featured an all-Loyola final, but the final was not played. 

Next on the schedule, the Wolf Pack will head to Dillard University's tennis courts for the Bleu Devils fall invitational on October 18.