Stephan Tavares Noale finishes stellar season for men's tennis

Troy freshman Stephan Tavares Noale impressed in his first season on the Troy men’s tennis team. He punctuated his strong season with two Sun Belt Tournament singles wins, clinching quarterfinal and semifinal wins for the Trojans. 

The freshman from Sao Paulo, Brazil, burst onto the scene in the spring season, compiling a 16-3 record in his first collegiate season. Only two of the losses came in the regular season, with the other one coming to eventual conference champions Old Dominion.  

In the first campaign for Tavares Noale, the freshman rode a nine-match win streak that spanned almost two months. The streak included wins over North Alabama, Mercer and Southern Miss.  

The streak was eventually snapped by Alabama State, before Tavares Noale started another tear, winning his next four matches to help lead Troy to the Sun Belt Conference Championship match.  

In the first two rounds of the conference tournament, Tavares Noale moved on with ease. The freshman started with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Julius Bult from Southern Miss in the semifinals.  

He followed that up with a quarterfinal win against Albert Widell from Georgia Southern, 7-6 (9-7), 7-5. In a championship Sunday match with Old Dominion, Tavares Noale battled a tough opponent, dropping his match 1-6, 7-5, 2-6 but forcing a third set with his adversary, Zechariah Hamrouni.  

Over two thirds of his wins came in convincing fashion, with the freshman needing to go to a third set in only five of his match wins. Two of his most dominant wins both came at home, a 6-0, 6-3 rout against West Alabama and a 6-0, 6-1 domination versus Mississippi Gulf Coast.  

Tavares Noale found consistency on court five during the season, amassing a 12-2 record while appearing in the fifth spot. 

On the doubles court, Tavares Noale showed out as well with a 17-6 record. The freshman paired well with sophomore Thiago Drozdowski, as the duo went 13-3 in the spring season, including ending the season on a five-match win streak.  

The fall season wasn’t much different for the freshman, with the new kid in town going a solid 4-3 in a short season against tough competition. The final two of those losses came against SEC foes Auburn and Mississippi State.  

Going into his sophomore year, Stephan Tavares Noale looks to continue to grow on the court with Troy men’s tennis.