Sean Donohue watched the match with his foot in a bucket. Though his sprained ankle cut his own match short, he didn’t let that stop him from watching his teammate play.
Brian Conlon watched the match under the shade of an umbrella in the bleachers. He had lost his last match only an hour or so before, but he didn’t let that get in the way of watching his teammate, either.
Coach George Husack sat on the bench on the side of the court and coached between points. He tried to keep his last player in the match and Alabama in the USTA/ITA Southern Regional Championships.
It almost worked.
Becker O’Shaughnessey was the last Crimson Tide tennis player in the tournament Saturday. He took the first set 6-3 but gave up his lead in the second set. His opponent, UAB’s Chris Helliar, forced a tiebreaker and won, splitting the sets. In the third set, O’Shaughnessey came back from a three-game deficit to force another tiebreaker. Once again, it didn’t go his way.
“I think it was a good tournament for us,” Husack said. “Sure, we want to go further and certainly had opportunities to play further into the tournament. Becker’s match today, he started out, he was well in command, up a set in the service break, but let some frustrations get to him, and so that ended the tournament for him. But overall, some good tennis out here.”
Saturday morning looked promising when O’Shaughnessey and Daniil Proskura won their first doubles match, and Donohue won his first match. However, the doubles pair and Donohue both lost their second matches.
“We had a good first round [of] doubles this morning, and our second round was not too good,” O’Shaughnessey said. “We didn’t play well, but we played a tough Auburn team. We got one of the guys, [No. 1] in the country the last two or three years, so it’s not a bad loss. But we just didn’t play too well.”
The Crimson Tide finished its role in the tournament after O’Shaughnessey’s loss in the singles game.
“We could’ve done better, but as our coach always says – ‘We aren’t concerned with wins and losses during the fall.’ We’ll be more concerned with that during the spring. We’re more concerned right now with building the program and the team and everything and making sure we’re doing the right things on the court,” Conlon said.
Alabama finished its play Saturday, but the tournament went on for another two days and finished Monday. Ole Miss’ William Kallberg and Stefan Lindmark took home top honors in doubles, and Mississippi State’s Malte Stropp won the singles title.
The Alabama men’s tennis team will travel to Birmingham for the United States Tennis Association Futures starting Oct. 21.
