ARKADELPHIA – No. 25 Ouachita improved to 2-0 to start the 2024 season with a hard-fought 6-1 victory over Southwest Baptist on Saturday at home.
The Tigers started the night earning the doubles point with wins in second and third position by
Phil Exner/
Alex Blanchar and
Elias Lagger/
Aaron Osmond. All three doubles matchups were close. SBU earned a win in first position 6-4. The two Ouachita wins were both by scores of 6-3.
In singles, the Tigers won five of the six matchups, highlighted by a convincing win in first position by
Phil Exner over SBU Alejandro Beneyto Sanchez by scores of 6-1 and 6-0.
The rest of the singles matchups were closer, including an extra game needed for
Fernando Docters to win his first set in third position and a back-and-forth match for
Alex Blanchar in second position. Blanchar pulled away at the end, winning 6-3 and 6-4.
The only loss for the Tigers in singles was the only matchup that required a tiebreaker.
Aaron Osmond and SBU's Pedro Pinto went point for point in the first set in fifth position, needing a tiebreaker to decide the opener, which eventually went SBU's way. Osmond earned a convincing 6-2 win in the second set to force a tiebreaker, which produced an a 18-point rally ending in SBU's favor.
Ramon Strassmann and
Elias Lagger also earned wins in singles.
The Tigers are off next weekend before hosting Midwestern State and Mississippi College February 17-18.
NO. 25 OUACHITA 6, SOUTHWEST BAPTIST 1
DOUBLES
- Youssef Nabil/Ilyes Khelifi (SBU) def. Fernando Docters/Ramon Strassmann (OUA) 6-4
- Phil Exner/Alex Blanchar (OUA) def. Alejandro Beneyto Sanchez/Bojan Radoman (SBU) 6-3
- Elias Lagger/Aaron Osmond (OUA) def. Pedro Pinto/Fabian Neff (SBU) 6-3
SINGLES
- Exner (OUA) def. Beneyto Sanchez (SBU) 6-1, 6-0
- Blanchar (OUA) def. Nabil (SBU) 6-3, 6-4
- Docters (OUA) def. Khelifi (SBU) 7-5, 6-1
- Strassmann (OUA) def. Neff (SBU) 6-2, 6-3
- Pinto (SBU) def. Osmond (OUA) 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 10-8
- Lagger (OUA) def. Radoman (SBU) 6-3, 6-1
