McNeese State University - Log Yearbook (Lake Charles, LA)

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152 Sports Trying to keep a .700 season aver- age, senior Sergio Villa battles his opponent from Louisiana Tech. (Photo by B. Mericle) Freshman Laura Cadena of Mexico confers with her opponent from Houston Baptist before continuing the match. (Photo by J. Cates) Freshman Pontus Lavefalk of Swe- den gets good top spin from his serve. (Photo by G. Edwards)

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ty me jave the team the poise and xperience it takes to win the ‘ight matches.’ The Pokes would start the season with a 9-0 blanking of Dentenary in Shreveport be- ore falling to Southwestern ».ouisiana in their home opener 38. | That was followed by a 5-1 victory over Southeastern Lou- ‘siana in Hammond setting the stage for the first major ac- somplishment of the year for ‘he Cowboys. | McNeese went from Ham- (nond on to Hattiesburg, MS, 0 take part in the 17th annual 3ig Gold Tournament at South- ern Mississippi, a tournament that would feature 31 teams, the largest in the event's histo- ry. The Cowboys also had the distinction of being the de- fending champion, a role which made the Pokes the ma- jor target for the other 30 teams entered. The Cowboys answered the challenge, leading from start to finish to capture the title for the second straight year, a feat never done before. The Pokes returned home for their first Southland Confer- ence encounter against de- fending SLC champion North- east Louisiana, a team which by midseason would be ranked 13th nationally. McNeese was no match for the Indians on that day with NLU taking an 8-1 victory, but the loss to NLU seemed to light a fire under the Cowboys, and they put together five Straight wins, three of those SLC victories to run their re- cord to 7-2. The win streak stopped at Baylor, however, as the Pokes dropped a 5-4 decision to the Bears. “That was a match that we let get away from us,” Holland said. ‘‘We had the better team, ow, left to right: Anders Osberg, Sergio Villa, Holland, Ulf Persson, Robinson Ureta, Pontus lohan Kjelisten, Rodrigo Arenas. Back row: Coach Lee Lavefalk, Johan Hallin. (Photo by B. Mericle) Bact Be eek Taking Advantage but we didn’t win the key points. We did learn from our mistakes, though.’ That loss again ignited McNeese. They took off on a six-match winning streak to run their record to 13-3 setting the state for a pivital match against 20th ranked Florida State in Tallahassee. McNeese put together one of its best performances of the year that day, but it wasn’t enough as the Pokes again fell 5-4. Despite the loss the Cow- boys were playing good ten- nis, and it was showing in the Continued » 1985 Men's Tennis Centenary SW LA SE LA NE LA Ark Nicholls TX-Arlington N Texas St Baylor SE LA Nicholls St. NW LA Houston Bapt Sam Houston S Alabama Florida St. W Florida La Tech Lamar a ie ne ee eee eae Se ae SW LA Tennis 153