“You have to tell yourself that you can’t worry about the result,” Omodele-Lucien explained. “If you worry about the result you won’t perform well. The most important thing in a tight situation like that is to play your game well and focus on each shot rather than the score.”

Up 6-5 against St. John’s Milo Hauk, Omodele-Lucien lived up to his words. After dropping the first point, he countered with two solid serves to capture the upper hand at 30-15. An unforced error gave him a bigger lead at 40-15.

Then, a double fault gave the Red Storm a point to make the score 40-30. In the next exchange, Omodele-Lucien’s opponent lobbed a shot into the back corner to knot the score at deuce. Yet, Omodele-Lucien held on and captured the next two points for a 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory.

“To see Aba come in with such a big win after losing the first set to a guy whose game style was a nightmare for Aba’s game was great for us,” Fish said.

Fish also made note of the team’s impressive efforts despite the inevitable mid-semester fatigue.

“Our guys were pretty exhausted from exams week, and they were really just running on fumes yesterday [against Radford],” Fish said. “I think they came out and showed a lot of guts and a lot of team spirit when they didn’t have a lot to run on.”