Temple University men’s tennis (3-1, 0-0 The American Athletic Conference) defeated Norfolk State University (1-3, 0-0 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) 5-2 on Saturday and fell to Old Dominion University (8-7,1-0 Conference USA) 6-1 in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sunday.
Against Norfolk State, Temple’s duo of graduate student Eric Biscoveanu and junior Louis Gorregues fell to junior Federico Rebecchini and redshirt senior Igancio Guevel 7-6.
Temple sophomore Marin Delmas and graduate student Juan Araoz took down Spartans redshirt senior Andres Alcaraz and freshman Santiago Rendon 6-4.
Owls junior Amine Zraidi and senior Michael Haelen defeated freshman Ivan Ivars and sophomore Ibrahim Abbas 6-1 to close out the doubles portion. For Zraidi and Haelen, it was their first match of the season.
“We wanted to give them a chance to play,” head coach Steve Mauro said. “We also wanted to give our players a bit of a rest since we have been playing a lot of tennis.”
Temple won four out of the six singles matches to close out the victory over the Spartans on Saturday. Mauro continues to be impressed with Delmas, he said.
“I thought that our number one player today Marin Delmas was really solid,” Mauro added. “He was really solid and he played a good opponent and is starting to feel more and more comfortable.”
Despite the Owls’ success against the Spartans, Temple struggled to compete with Old Dominion on Sunday.
Monarchs junior Jannick Giesse and freshman Younes Lalami took down Biscoveanu and Gorregues 6-1.
Delmas and Araoz fell to redshirt junior Tomisolav Podvinski and senior Pearse Dolan 6-4.
Freshman Léo Raquin and junior Thibault Frumholz battled Monarchs sophomores Luca Maldoner and Nicola Vidal. The match went unfinished and ended in a 4-3 score because Old Dominion already won the doubles point.
“There were a lot of close matches,” Mauro said. “Even though it was a 6-1 loss we could have won the match.”
The Owls continued to struggle as Delmas was the only player to win a singles match. Despite this, Mauro is still confident in his team’s play so far this season, he said.
“It is a good start to the season,” Mauro added. “Nothing to take away from their team, they are a good team, but I think if we played them in another couple weeks it would be a different outcome.”
Temple will get a few days to rest before the Owls’ next match against rival Villanova University (3-2, 0-0 Big East conference) at the Cherry Hill Racquet Club March 17.
Be the first to comment