By Dalton Ray–
In the second game of U of L’s Friday double header the Cards downed Boston College 6-1. The win notched the team’s first conference win of the year. In the first match up of the day Louisville defeated Belmont 6-1. Rex Ecarma’s team now sits at 14-15 on the year.
The Cardinals displayed their most impressive win of the year against BC versus formable competition. They also did so in impressive fashion by taking the doubles point then the first four singles matches.
Jeff Brown, George Hedley and Sean Donohue registered singles victories in both wins. Brown and Chris Kougoucheff also added two doubles wins on the day.
Coach Ecarma reflected on the team’s first conference win in just over a year.
“It’s a relief to get the win. I told the guys playing in the ACC is like sprinting uphill, it’s just hard,” he said. “It’s one of the top conferences in the country, a national champion will probably come from the ACC. We’ve lost winable matches and I felt like those added weight to our back. So to get this win it feels like someone just cut the bags off our back, we can play more free and relaxed now.”
Sean Donohue and Courtney Lock clinched the doubles point by winning 6-4. After gaining the point Louisville didn’t look back. The Cards won the first three singles match up which claimed the victory.
Winners included Brown, Headley, Donohue, Kougoucheff and Brandon Lancaster . Brown expressed how big the win was for the team afterwards.
“Getting that win was big, afterwards we were all just like, ‘Finally,'” he said. “We just all went out today and played well, we just haven’t been able to play at the same level as a whole this year. You need four points to win, all year it just seemed like we had three but couldn’t get that fourth but we did today.”
Brown is one of two seniors on the team along with St. X graduate Alex Gornet. Brown described his time at U of L in one word: fast.
“It’s just been so fast but awesome at the same time. There have been a lot of fun moments,” he said. “Today was one to remember simply because we got his conference win with these freshman, it was good to experience an ACC win together with these guys. I plan on getting another one Sunday for senior day.”
Ecarma is hoping the team will be able to carry the momentum from this two wins into Sunday’s matchup against seventh-ranked Wake Forest. The season finale is senior day for U of L and the last time Brown and Gornet will play as Cardinals at Bass-Rudd Tennis Center. Louisville is set to return nine players next year.
Photo by Dalton Ray / The Louisville Cardinal
