Jesuit, Dominican take tennis titles

Once again, the two top Catholic school tennis programs in the New Orleans area prevailed at the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Class 5A Region III Tennis Tournament sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl April 22 -23.

Jesuit earned the boys’ title and Dominican won the girls’ title in action at the City Park tennis courts. It is the sixth straight championship for Jesuit, while Dominican won its second straight outright title after sharing the championship in 2012. The region consists of teams from the Bayou region of Louisiana and the Southshore Metro New Orleans area.

Brother Martin was second place on the boys’ side, while Mount Carmel took second for the girls.

Top-seeded Jordan Lacoste from Jesuit won his first regional singles title by teaming with the brutal sun to hold off teammate Alex DePascual. The second-seeded DePascual won the first set, 6-2, but then dropped the second set 6-3 before being forced to withdraw due to heat-related illness.

Lacoste had topped No. 3 seed Zach Brubaker from Brother Martin, 6-0, 6-0, in the semifinals, while DePascual upended Terrebonne’s Sean Stewart, the No. 4 seed, 6-0, 6-2, in his semifinal.

In the girls’ singles bracket, Domincan’s Haley Tucker, the top overall seed, won her second straight regional title by defeating teammate and No. 2 seed Gabby Terranova, 6-1, 7-5.

The doubles title matches also featured teammates battling on both the boys’ and girls’ sides. For the boys, it was the second-seeded brother tandem of Jacob and Jonathan Niehaus defeating top-seeded Blue Jay teammates Gregory Suhor and Brandon Beck in a hard-fought match, 7-6, 7-5.

The girls’ doubles championship was captured by the top-seeded duo of Lilly LaBiche and Morgan Forshag from Dominican, who defeated teammates Rachel Beck and Madison Artigues, 6-4, 6-2. Beck and Artigues, the second seed, were the defending doubles champions.