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Juan Luca Cividini ALL-MACCC first team
Chuck Barnes

Southwest Men's Tennis finishes season with 8-match win streak and ALL-MACCC selection

| By: By Cody Junkin
Juan Luca Cividini
After a 2-8 start, Southwest Men's Tennis went on an 8-match win streak to finish the regular season at 10-8 and go into the playoffs with the #5 seed.

The team picked up wins over 5 MACCC opponents during their win streak including: Itawamba, Meridian, East Central, Holmes, and Hinds.

The Bears went into the playoffs as the #5 seed to faceoff against Northwest.

After a hard battle, Southwest Men's Tennis fell 2-5 to Northwest to put an end to their great season.

Southwest's Juan Luca Cividini, a freshman from Rosario, Argentina, was selected to the ALL-MACCC first team.

Luca finished the season with a 15-4 record in singles.

Thomas Simpson, Manan Kumar, and Juan Manuel Riano Cifuentes are all sophomore's that helped guide the men's team along the 8-match win streak.

"It means a lot to me, considering last year we finished 9th so we didn't qualify for regionals last year. And now we are seeded fifth so it's pretty big for Southwest," said Thomas Simpson when asked about the 8-match win streak.

Thomas is a Summit native who attended North Pike High School.

"It was really at practice. We had to focus in at practice you know. Stay focused and not play around as much as we used to and take it more serious," said Simpson on what it took to go on an 8-match win streak, "it's important to be close to your team and not just be players. I feel like we have become more of a family on this team. We're all close knitted now, and I think that plays a big role."

Juan Manuel Riano Cifuentes is a native of Bogota, DC, Colombia and attended Colegio Liceo Sevovia.

"It was awesome, coming from last year where we were close to qualifying for regionals and we didn't. And now having a different team with different guys it's pretty big you know being my sophomore year. Being with Thomas, it was crazy knowing that we finished fifth. [Coach] Dean is really proud of us. We are really proud of us. 8 wins in a row is a crazy achievement for the program," said Juan Manuel, "it's pretty good. It's really something I can feel proud of not only because of myself but because of the team."

"First, we are a family. Everything that happens to one of us it affects the others. So, we were pushing because we knew that we had a big chance. And look, it worked. We finished really strong and we are going to the regionals," said Juan Manuel about encouraging each other as a team.

"Definitely keep working hard. Last year we started building the culture and worked hard to get here and it finally paid off," said Juan Manuel on what he learned during his time at Southwest.

The Bears finished 10-8 overall going 5-4 in conference this season.
 
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