The Tigers faced the UL-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns on Wednesday night, defeating them by a score of 4-3 in what many would describe as being too close for comfort. The Tigers took the first four points, concluding that stretch with a strong, first singles victory from Joao Graca, but dropped each of the last three points in tiebreakers.
Going into his first match, Joao Graca was understandably nervous. But he quickly adapted and calmed down, and that’s when he started to show his potential.
“I tried to be calm and do my thing,” Graca said. “At the beginning, I was a little bit nervous, but I think that’s normal for the first game.”
His debut started off slow in doubles, where he and Joey Thomas were down 2-5 and fixing to become the only LSU duo to lose tonight. They turned it around, however, winning four of their next five games to even the score at 6-6 and then winning tiebreakers 7-3 to take the match.
“[I was] especially [nervous] in doubles because I’m not used to playing only one set,” Graca emphasized. “The game goes fast, but we won so it was good.”
He would follow that performance up with a dominant win in singles, giving the Tigers their fourth point and clinching the match for them with a 6-4/6-1 victory over UL-Lafayette’s Alejo Chueca. He stated that he was a bit nervous during the first set, but figured it out in the second, which is clear based on the scoreboard.
Graca was very happy with his performances tonight and mentioned that he completed all of his goals for his first match with the Tigers.
“That was my goal: to win the first two matches,” Graca said. “I did it, I completed my goal so I’m very happy.”
Though there was a lot to be happy about from tonight, there were also a lot of concerns based on the score. The question is: how was this match close?
The score is closer than the match actually was, but LSU went 0-3 in tiebreaker sets in singles, with Ronald Hohmann, Rafael Wagner and Malik Bhatnagar all losing due to tiebreakers.
Hohmann struggled at the beginning of the set, sporting a 3-7 deficit at one point, but went on a tear to take a 9-8 lead. However, he fizzled out in the end, and ultimately lost the set 9-11, costing LSU their chance of a third straight sweep to start the year.
Wagner and Bhatnagar each started out strong, but ended with rough stretches, and two more points went to the opponents. It’s very likely that if they had played out the third set instead of opting for tiebreakers, the Tigers would have had more points, but this is still worth noting.
At the end of the day, the Tigers did defeat their in-state rivals, but it doesn’t feel like it. With LSU’s top three singles players all losing, it’s hard to be optimistic about the win. The Tigers will look to have a stronger performance this weekend though, where they will face UTSA, a tougher opponent.
