Wolf Pack men wrap up fall at ITA Regional

THIBODAUX, La. – The Loyola University New Orleans men's tennis team wrapped up the fall schedule this weekend at the 2026 ITA Gulf Regional. 

The Wolf Pack competed in a field that included New Orleans schools Dillard and Xavier, as well as Our Lady of the Lake, William Carey, and Texas A&M Texarkana. Four returners played over the weekend: graduate student Samuel Marin, juniors Alfredo Gallegos and Jett Nguyen, and sophomore Luca Abati. 

All four Wolf Pack returners won matches at the tournament, highlighted by a semifinal run from Nguyen and Abati in doubles and a quarterfinal appearance from Gallegos in singles. 

Nguyen and Abati opened the doubles draw with an 8-2 victory over Xavier's Emmanuel Jebutu and Jan Marakan before advancing with a 9-8 (7-4) tiebreak win over William Carey's Vinh Nguyen and Alpay Gular. Their run ended in the semifinal round against Xavier's duo of Fatih Sisic and Edilson Rosa, who would go on to win in the final. While Nguyen did not play in singles, Abati earned a second-round victory after receiving a bye for the first round, defeating OLLU's Luis Jimenez 6-4, 6-4 before dropping his next match against Dillard's Siddharth Arya in a second-set tiebreak. 

Marin and Gallegos also picked up a doubles victory, defeating William Carey pair Artur Ibragimov and Kuan-Ting Chen 8-3 before falling against the Our Lady of the Lake team of David Simicek/Eliot Costa in the quarterfinal round. 

Gallegos put together Loyola's deepest singles run of the weekend. After receiving an opening-round bye, the junior defeated Eliot Costa of Our Lady of the Lake in three sets, 5-7, 6-2, 10-2. He followed by getting past Xavier's Rosa in a tight three-setter, winning 7-6, 3-6, 11-9 to advance to the quarterfinals. He then took the opening set against Xavier's Christian Sanchez before falling 6-7, 6-3, 10-1. Sanchez went on to win the regional championship in singles. 

The two victories moved Gallegos to 27-14 in singles during his Loyola career. He now ranks fourth in program history in overall singles victories, trailing only Hippolyte de Preville (33), Ernesto De Diego (31) and Marin (28).

Marin also moved up the Wolf Pack record book during the weekend. He defeated Vinh Nguyen in three sets, 6-3, 2-6, 10-7, before falling to Texas A&M-Texarkana's Zaleskyi 6-2, 6-4. The win was the 28th singles victory of Marin's Loyola career, moving him into third place in program history with a 28-33 career record. 

Marin also now owns 25 career doubles victories with the Wolf Pack, tying de Preville and Remus Hebhang-Balan for sixth in program history. Marin is 25-28 overall in doubles. 

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