Saints start Spring Season off right in Arkansas

By: Nacole Miller, Seward County Sports Information

ARKADELPHIA, AR – The nationally ranked No. 3 Saints tennis team played at Ouachita Baptist University Friday and Saturday and also faced Texas A&M-Texarkana and Harding University and left with an undefeated Spring record after all three matches.

On Friday the Saints faced Harding and Texas A&M-Texarkana. The Saints breezed through the first day defeating Harding 8-1 and Texarkana 9-0. 

Match one verses Harding started with a sweep in doubles where No.1 through 3 all won 8-4. The teams were in No.1 Nick Rousset and Hugo Lobo, No.2 Tim Lamare and Duro Opacic, and No.3 Carlo Izurieta and Benji Finet.

In singles, No.1 Rousset ranked nationally at No. 4 won against nationally ranked at No. 44 Carlos Crisostomo 6-1, 6-2. Saint Opacic in No.2 ranked No. 8 defeated Alejandro Sendra 6-0, 6-1. Ranked No. 14 Lamare defeated Luis Tirado 6-2, 7-6. No.4 ranked No. 48 Hugo Lobo consistently won agains Adria Abella 6-4 in both sets. 

No.5 Izurieta put up a long fight going into three sets but then falling to Salvan at the end losing 3-6, 6-3, then 7-10. This was the only match loss the Saints had this weekend. No. 6 Franck Soulerot defeated Pablo Treino 6-3, 6-1. 

Saints tennis cruised to a 9-0 win over Texas A&M-Texarkana and Ouachita Baptist on Friday afternoon and Saturday to cap a perfect 3-0 weekend in Arkansas.

Against A&M-Texarkana, doubles teams No.1 Rousset and Lobo and No.3 FInet and Izurieta both won 8-5, while No.2 team Opacic and Lamare won 8-4. 

Going into singles No.3 Lamare came with a quick win 6-2, 7-6 and following was No.4 Lobo who came out with a win 6-3, 6-3.

The Saints also got victories from Finet on No. 5, Rousset on No. 1 and Opacic on No. 2. Finet won 6-4, 6-4, while Opacic earned a 6-1, 6-0 win. Rousset took a super tiebreak third set 10-7 to win 3-6, 6-3. The match was already clenched so No. 6 Soulerot finished his match with a pro set winning 8-6.

On Saturday, the Saints started the day with a clean sweep in doubles action. At No. 2, Opacic and Lamare finished first with a 8-5 win over their Tiger counterparts. No. 1 and 3 weren't far behind as Rousset and Lobo won 8-2 on the top court, and Finet and Izurieta won 8-6 at No. 3.

Moving into singles, Saint Opacic made quick work of his match winning 6-1, 6-0 against Lonneman in No. 2 and shortly after No.5 Finet finished with a win of 6-4, 7-5 against Montgomery. Soulerot at No.6 defeated his opponent Solorzano 6-4, 6-2.

The next two to finish No.1 and 3 both went into a tiebreaker and just so happened to be the No.1 doubles pair all weekend Rousset at No.1 and Lobo at No.3. Lobo finished first winning 3-6, 6-4, 10-5 and Rousset was able to pull out the win with scores of 6-3, 3-6, 10-4.  Last to finish in a back and forth match was Lamare who finally defeated Adi 6-3, 7-6 to finish out the weekend.

The No. 3 Saints end the weekend with a 3-0 undefeated spring record and an individual 2018 record of 26-1.