LIVINGSTON – The University of West Alabama men’s and women’s tennis teams swept doubles play and went on to open the spring season by defeating Delta State Saturday at the Vaughn Tennis Complex. The women handily defeated Delta State 8-1, while the men beat the Statesmen 5-4.

“The thing we have emphasized is our doubles play, and it was our doubles play that set us up for the win,” UWA head coach Glen Fanelli said. “This is the first time since I’ve been here that we have swept doubles in a big match this early in the season. I hope we can continue this trend.”

In No. 1 doubles UWA’s Anton Ivanov and Adam Drysdale defeated Florian Mondoloni and Guillaume Lacour, 8-3. Kike Ruiz and Nestor Vargas were 9-7 winners over Tobias Rausch and Jean-Michel Limery, while Honorio Fernandez and Simon Bardell were 8-3 winners over Sebastian Rajadnary and Clement Depreeuw to complete the men’s sweep.

On the women’s side, Jill Furlong and Shannon McEvoy defeated Maria Moya and Erin Teivans, 8-5. Natalia Cardenas and Helga Jeske were 8-2 winners over Sandra Tora and Hidemi Mayeshiro. Delta State forfeited in No. 3 women’s doubles to Emily Gerding and Dasha Popova.

Vargas and Ivanov were singles winners for the West Alabama men. Furlong, Popova, Jeske and Gerding each won their women’s singles matches. McEvoy won in No. 6 women’s singles by forfeit.

The Tigers next match is Wednesday at West Florida.