ORANGEBURG, S.C. - Georgia Southern Men's Tennis suffered a 6-1 defeat at South Carolina State at the S.C.S.U. Tennis Courts Wednesday. Eagle Juan Manual Melian Puigventos remained undefeated with a 6-0 record at number-one singles with a 6-2, 6-2 win over the Pirates' Gabriel Meana.

Puigventos also picked up an 8-7 win with teammate Matthjis Verdam at the number-one doubles seed. S.C. State's doubles team of Dmytro Kovalevych and Anton Protensko topped Marco Osorio and Alain Garrido 8-0. Artemiy Nikitin and David Grund earned the doubles point for the Pirates with an 8-3 win over Edio Castanhal and Mark Paetz.

"We didn't execute well in doubles today at the start of the match and we were never able to shift the momentum," said Eagles Head Coach Nick Zieziula. "We fought hard, but that wasn't enough against today's opponent. We need to put this behind us quickly to prepare for North Florida on Saturday."

After losing the first set 6-3, Osorio recorded a critical win in the second set, 7-6, over Peteris Vinograadous, but lost the super tiebreak 3-10 at number-four singles. The Pirates' Kovalevych posted a 6-3 score in the first set against Garrido at the No. 2 seed, then had to battle for the win in the second set 7-6.

S.C. State won in straight sets at number-three singles as Anton Protsenko beat Verdam 6-2, 6-2. At the No. 5 spot, Castanhel fell 6-1, 6-1 to Nitikin and Grund topped Thomas Beckers 6-1, 6-3 in number-six singles play.

Georgia Southern travels next to Jacksonville for a match with North Florida on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Ospreys are 3-2 with wins over Georgia State, Florida A&M and Florida Atlantic and losses to Miami and Elon. Moritz Buerchner, at number-one singles for the Ospreys, has one loss this season, to No. 16 regionally ranked Mark Abdelnour of Florida Atlantic.