The Lady Colonel tennis team picked up its first Southland Conference victory of the season with a 5-2 win over Southwest Texas State, Saturday night in Hammond. The match was played in Hammond, because Lady Colonels Virginie Villani and Sandra Gloria took tests earlier in the day in New Orleans, and Southwest Texas was already in town for a match against Southeastern Louisiana.
“We really stepped up our play against Southwest Texas,” Gloria said
The win upped Nicholls overall record to 3-7 overall and 1-4 in the SLC. Nicholls is playing with just four players instead of the normal six, and won every match it competed in against Southwest Texas.
The Lady Colonels won all four singles matches, and took another point by winning two-of-three doubles matches.
Catherine Gauthier, Villani, Gloria and Rachel Wade all won their singles matches, while Gloria and Villani took an 8-6 doubles win, and Gauthier and Wade picked up an 8-5 doubles victory.
“They went out and won every match,” Lady Colonel head coach Robby Flink, who picked up his first career SLC win, said. “We won that double point and that gave us a lot of energy going into singles play. That doubles point is really key for us.”
Nicholls was forced to forfeit the No. 5 and No. 6 singles matches along with the No. 3 doubles match.
On Sunday, the Lady Colonels hosted Texas-San Antonio and fell 7-0. Villani won the lone Lady Colonel singles set of the match. After dropping the opening set of the No. 2 singles match 7-5, she posted a 6-1 win in the second set, only to fall 6-3 in the third.
Gauthier and Wade did pick up a win at No. 2 doubles match, but a loss by Gloria and Villani at No. 1 and a forfeit at No. 3 allowed UTSA to get the doubles point.
“UTSA is a strong team, and is always at the top of the conference,” Flink said. “I thought we played well, and we had our chances.”
Nicholls will next be in action this weekend, when they travel to North Louisiana for a pair of in-state SLC matches.
On Saturday Nicholls will face the University of Louisiana at Monroe, before taking on Northwestern State on Sunday.
“Both are strong teams, but I feel that if we play the kind of tennis we are capable of, we can win,” Flink said. “The team is playing well and I have no complaints at all. We need to take that doubles point and keep that positive attitude going into the singles matches.”
