{"id":482948,"date":"2026-02-16T04:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T04:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/482948\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T04:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T04:20:09","slug":"ahmad-completes-comeback-as-lions-improve-to-7-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/482948\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahmad Completes Comeback as Lions Improve to 7-1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


\n
\n <\/p>\n

\"UC<\/p>\n

Next Match:<\/p>\n

UC Irvine<\/p>\n

3\/7\/2026 | 11:00 AM<\/p>\n


\n Mar. 07 (Sat) \/ 11:00 AM \n <\/p>\n

\"UC<\/p>\n


\n \u00a0UC Irvine \n <\/p>\n

History <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES\u00a0\u2013 Down 1-0 after doubles play, LMU\u00a0men’s tennis showed resilience and grit to storm back and defeat Utah State 4-3 on Sunday\u00a0afternoon at the LMU Tennis Center, with Cyrus Ahmad<\/a> delivering the clinching point on Court 6 to spark jubilant celebrations.\u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Let’s put a stamp\u00a0on\u00a0February,” said head coach Tom Lloyd<\/a> before the match. His team did exactly that.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Lions found themselves in an early hole after Utah State claimed the doubles point. Jean-Baptiste Badon and Dmitri\u00a0Goubin\u00a0defeated\u00a0Emil Kindhult<\/a>\u00a0and Kuba Hrynkiewicz<\/a>\u00a06-0 on Court 2 in the first match to finish. Cesar Cruz<\/a> and Darius Tamaddon<\/a>\u00a0kept LMU’s hopes alive with a 6-4 victory on Court 3, but Xavier Calvelo and Jakub Medved clinched the doubles point for the Aggies with a 6-4 win on Court 1.\u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trailing 1-0 heading into singles, the Lions needed a strong response,\u00a0but things got worse before they got better.\u00a0

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eliot Nobel finished first in singles action, defeating\u00a0Emil Kindhult<\/a>\u00a06-0, 6-2 at No. 3 to extend Utah State’s\u00a0lead\u00a0to 2-0. The pressure mounted when Roman Venger posted a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Kuba Hrynkiewicz<\/a>\u00a0at No. 4, putting the Aggies up 3-0 and just one point from victory.\u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

That’s\u00a0when the comeback began in earnest.\u00a0

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cesar Cruz<\/a> ignited the rally at No. 2, defeating Xavier Calvelo 6-3, 6-3 to get LMU on the board at 3-1. Moments later, Max Wuelfing<\/a> broke through at No. 1 singles, outlasting Jean-Baptiste Badon 6-2, 7-6 to make it 3-2.\u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

The momentum had completely shifted. Alex Padro kept the rally alive at No. 5, battling back from a set down to defeat Jakub Medved 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, knotting the match at 3-3.\u00a0

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the\u00a0team\u00a0score tied and everything on the line, all eyes turned to\u00a0No.\u00a06, where Cyrus Ahmad<\/a> was locked in an epic three-set battle with Dmitri\u00a0Goubin. Ahmad had taken a tight first set 7-5, then dropped a heartbreaking second set 7-6 in a tiebreaker. Now, in the decisive third set, the entire match hung in the balance.\u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ahmad rose to the occasion,\u00a0and after falling behind 2-0,\u00a0won six of eight games to\u00a0complete\u00a0the comeback and seal the 4-3 victory for the Lions.\u00a0

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

The moment the final ball landed, the LMU Tennis Center erupted in celebration.\u00a0

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

Teammates sprinted onto Court 6, mobbing Ahmad\u00a0and sending the Lions home with a memorable victory.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Next Match: UC Irvine 3\/7\/2026 | 11:00 AM Mar. 07 (Sat) \/ 11:00 AM …\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-482948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}