By Riley Vance —
Men’s tennis hosted No. 13 Notre Dame and Wright State in a doubleheader this past Sunday. Louisville lost 4-0 to Notre Dame, but managed to turn things around for a 7-0 win over Wright State.
Notre Dame
The Cardinals almost secured the doubles point against the Fighting Irish, winning 6-3 at the No. 1 spot and keeping a comfortable lead at the No. 2 spot. Unfortunately, Notre Dame fought back on courts two and three to win both matches and the doubles point.
“Being at home in front of a great crowd, I felt like we should have started off winning that doubles point,” head coach Rex Ecarma said. “We should have gotten that one, and then there were three or four close matches right there at the end that we hopefully could have gotten. That was the game plan, and when it didn’t start off right, it didn’t finish right.”
During singles, No. 5 David Mizrahi fell to William Howells (ND) 6-1, 6-1, followed by another 6-1, 6-1 loss on court one.
Notre Dame clinched the match after the Cards lost a long, hard fight on court six (6-2, 2-6, 1-6).
No. 2 Brandon Lancaster, No. 3 Sergio Hernandez and No. 4 Fabien Salle did not get the chance to complete their matches. Hernandez was leading 2-1 in the third set, and Salle was down 1-2.
Wright State
Finishing first in the doubles portion was freshman Alex Wesbrooks and senior Brandon Lancaster with a winning score of 6-2 at the No. 2 spot. Another freshman/senior duo, No. 1 Fabien Salle and George Hedley, completed their match to clinch the doubles point (6-4).
No. 6 Clement Filho quickly brought in the first win at 6-1, 6-0 in under an hour of singles play. Coming in second with a score of 6-3, 6-2 was No. 1 Christopher Morin-Kougoucheff to bring the Cards up to 3-0.
Freshman Hernandez won 6-2, 6-0 to clinch the match.
“It was a good bounce back,” Ecarma said. “I’m really happy for Clement Filho. He’s been out with an injury for almost the entire season and this was his first match back. He looked really good.”
No. 2 Lancaster fell to Lorenzo Maccarini (WS) 6-0, 2-6, 0-1, giving Wright State their only point.
Salle finished with a 6-4, 6-3 win at the No. 3 spot, followed by another win by No. 5 Mizrahi (6-3, 4-6, 1-0) to make the overall score 6-1.
Louisville (12-5) is back in action on Friday, Mar. 15 at Wake Forest.
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Photos by Riley Vance / The Louisville Cardinal