Georgia Southern 4, Furman 3
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team (5-5) rallied from a 0-3 deficit against Furman to take a 4-3 win at the Hanner Tennis Complex Tuesday, March 8th. It was the first win over the Paladins for the Eagles since 1999. Sophomore Matthijs Verdam played three hours and 15 minutes at number-two singles for the match win over Furman's Alex Christ 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
The match began with the Paladins winning the doubles point as the number-three doubles team of Alexi Chretsoc and Marco Aru took an 8-3 win over Georgia Southern's Sebastian Felt and Edio Castanhel. Sawyer Duncan and Andrew Mellow topped Juan Melian Puigventos and Verdam at number-one singles with an identical 8-3 score. The Eagles' tandem of Marco Osorio and Alain Garrdio defeated Chris and Joel Cook at the number-two spot 8-7 (3) in the final doubles match of the afternoon.
Despite two losses to start singles play, and first-set losses in five of the six singles matches, the Eagles fought back for the victory. At the number-four seed, Osorio won his second set 7-5 over Furman's Tyler Droll and took the super tiebreaker 6-0 for the first Eagles point.
At No. 1 singles, Puigventos took a 7-5, 7-6 (1) win over Duncan for another Georgia Southern point. Felt took the win at number-six singles over Paladin Robbie Aru, falling 2-6 in the first set, but rebounding with a 7-6 (5) win in the second. Felt pulled out the decision in the super tie break 6-4.
The Georgia Southern team cheered on Verdam as he and Christ were the final competitors on the court. Verdam, won his second set 7-6 (5) and had begun the third set while his fellow Eagles were still playing. Long after their decisions were registered, Verdam continued to battle. Verdam persevered with a 6-4 win in the super tie break and clinched the Georgia Southern win.
UNCG 5, Longwood 2
GREENSBORO, N.C. - UNCG won its second straight match Tuesday, stepping out of conference play to down Longwood 5-2 at the UNCG Tennis Courts.
For the second straight match, the Spartans (6-3) won the doubles point after winning it just once in their first seven contests. Freshmen Ahmet Sarioglu and Chanon Varapongsittikul grabbed an 8-2 win over Nobu Tanaka and Crescente Lesser at No. 3 for UNCG's first win of the afternoon. Jacob Wright and Yaroslav Litus picked up their fourth straight doubles win to clinch the point, downing Edward Becker and Milo Barajas-Alexander at No. 2, 8-4.
At No. 1, Longwood's Jimmy Davis and Marc Ferrigno bested Orcun Seyrek and Timion Meijs, 8-6.
Seyrek got things going quickly in singles play, blasting Tanaka 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1. Davis got the Lancers (3-4) on the board with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Sarioglu at No. 4, and redshirt freshman Zach Reece gave UNCG a 3-1 lead with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Becker at No. 6.
Varapongsittikul clinched the match at No. 5, wrapping up a 7-5, 6-0 win over Barajas-Alexander.
Ferrigno and Meijs staged quite the battle at No. 2, with Meijs winning the first set 7-5 before Ferrigno took the second 6-4. Ferrigno earned a 10-7 win in the tiebreaker to take the win.
Litus and Lesser were last to finish, with Lesser claiming the first set 6-4 and Litus rallying for a 7-5 win in the second set. Litus then gutted out a 12-10 win in the tiebreaker, rattling off three straight points after Lesser picked up match point at 10-9.
UNCG returns to play Thursday when the Spartans visit Samford in Birmingham, Ala. The match is set for 2 p.m.