Georgia Southern 5, Mercer 2
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team opened the spring season with a 5-2 victory over Mercer. The team managed to pull through on a chilly Friday afternoon. The Eagles christened their new home facility in a ribbon cutting ceremony prior to the match.
"We played a great first opening match on the courts," said head coach Nick Zieziula. "The energy from the fans really helped, and the freshmen competed very well today for their first team match."
The Eagles gained an early lead by securing the doubles point. Mercer won #3 doubles to open the scoring, but this was countered by the freshmen team of Andrew Dromsky and Kyle Hoffman who won 8-5 at #2 doubles. With the doubles point on the line, the upperclassmen duo of Matthijs Verdam and Alain Garrido prevailed 9-8 in a tiebreaker at #1 doubles over Mercer's top tandem of David Barton and Pierre Tafelski. Garrido hit a scintillating forehand return and then served out the tiebreaker on his own racket to take it 7-3.
"I was especially impressed with the way Matthijs and Alain stayed composed to win the doubles tiebreaker," added Zieziula.
Sebastian Felt began singles play for the Eagles but fell to Vincent DeLise at #5 singles. His doubles partner, Daniel Rush, got the Eagles back on the right track by securing his first career dual match win at #6 singles. The back and forth battle saw Rush prevail in three sets by a score of 6-1, 0-6, 6-0. Senior Garrido split sets at #2 singles, but he broke his opponent's serve early in the third set and never looked back to notch the victory 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
The freshman Hoffman showed much tenacity in his first dual match singles victory over Mercer's Joao Pagan at #4 singles. The first set was a seesaw affair, won by Hoffman by an 11-9 score in a tiebreaker. Hoffman fought off multiple set points before finally capitalizing on his opportunity. He then proceeded to take the second set by a score of 6-3 to secure the match victory for the Eagles. Freshman Albert Codina Sala fought valiantly but fell to Peter Tauchner in three sets at #3 singles. Finally, #1 singles player Verdam came from behind to win 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
The Eagles return to action on Saturday as they host the Ospreys of North Florida at 1 p.m. They then hit the road for a three-game swing through Florida next weekend.
Chattanooga 7, Murray State 0
MURRAY, Ky. - The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team started its first road weekend of the spring season with an impressive 7-0 sweep at Murray State (0-1) today. However, the story of trip has become the team's near miss of a bridge collapse on Thursday night.
The Mocs (2-1) were on their way to their hotel near the Kenlake Tennis Center, north of Murray, Ky., when they crossed the Eggner Ferry Bridge on US 68. Minutes later, a large cargo ship slammed into the bridge, causing it to collapse.
"Our hotel was less than a mile after we crossed the bridge," stated head coach Carlos Garcia. "When we checked in, the desk attendant told us the bridge had collapsed. I really thought she was joking, but we could not have missed it by more than five minutes. We were very lucky."
Word quickly spread about the Mocs barely making it across and the team was interviewed by many of the local media outlets. Fortunately, there were no injuries reported on the bridge or the ship. Despite the near-miss, the team was still sharp for its 12:30 p.m. (E.S.T.) first serve today.
UTC swept the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead, sparked by juniors Chris Smith and Roberto Vieira's 8-3 win at No. 1. Fellow juniors Stephen Crofford and Ankit Chopra followed up with an 8-6 win at No. 2 while sophomore Orlando Lourenco and freshman Pavels Grigorjevs won 8-5 at No. 3.
"You always want to get out in front with the doubles point," stated Garcia. "I like how we responded early and got it going our way quickly,"
Chattanooga kept the momentum when Vieira posted a speedy (6-1, 6-1) win at No. 1. Chopra and juniors Jackson Tresnan and Manuel Barroetavena also won in straight sets. Smith and Grigorjevs closed out the match with three-set wins at No. 2 and No. 6, respectively.
"Any time you can get a road win, it is huge," stated Garcia. "To get a sweep considering the situation, I was very proud of the way the guys responded."
South Carolina 7, Elon 0
COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Elon men's tennis team dropped a 7-0 decision to a talented South Carolina team on Friday morning at the USC Indoor Facility as the Phoenix opened the 2012 dual season. The Gamecocks (3-0) have beaten all three of their opponents this year in shutout fashion.
The day began with doubles action and Elon was forced to play without its lone senior, Eric Turner, who was sidelined due to illness. Turner and sophomore Cameron Silverman competed as Elon's top doubles pair this fall, earning a ranking of fourth in the Carolina Region. Silverman also suffered flu-like symptoms, but managed to play out the match.
Elon's doubles pairs were made up entirely of freshmen and sophomores with the number one and three tandems playing together for the first time. Rookies Dan Sablik and Christopher Geaslen suffered an 8-1 defeat to Chip Cox and Andrew Adams on court three before the Gamecock's Ivan Machado and Carl Eguez secured the doubles point with an 8-3 victory over freshman Stefan Fortmann and sophomore Andrew Prince at number two. On the first court, Silverman and rookie Jordan Kaufman fell 8-3 to Nick Jones and Kyle Koch.
Cox and Equez were quick to put the Gamecocks ahead, 3-0, with straight set wins over Kaufmann and Carlos Arboleda at number three and four, respectively. On court two, Fortmann fell in a tiebreak in the first set to Adams after battling back from a 5-1 deficit. Adams would go on to take the match, 7-6 (7), 6-2, clinching the Gamecock victory.
Despite struggling with illness, Silverman managed to force a third set against Machado in the top singles match. Machado opened with a 6-4 win before Silverman forced a deciding set with a 7-5 victory. Machado came up with an early break and eventually earned the 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 win.
South Carolina's Koch and Ben Barnette completed the South Carolina shutout with wins in straight sets over Prince and Geaslen in the final two matches of the day.
Elon will be back in action tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. when the Phoenix challenges No. 69 Georgia State in a neutral site match in Columbia, S.C.
Winthrop 5, Wofford 2
ROCK HILL, S.C. - The Wofford men's tennis team dropped a 5-2 decision to Winthrop at the Memorial Courts on Friday afternoon.
The Terriers drop to 0-2 on the season, while the Eagles improve to 2-0 overall.
The afternoon began with doubles action, where the Eagles claimed the early 1-0 advantage, taking all three matches.
In singles play, Tinus Van Wyk battled from behind, dropping the first set to Winthrop's Dejon Bivins, yet took the second set and the third set tiebreaker to earn the victory at the No. 1 position (4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (8)). At the No. 6 position, freshman Walker Heffron earned the first singles victory of his collegiate career, downing Luka Stanic in straight sets (6-4, 6-4). Winthrop took the remaining four singles matches to seal the overall win.
The Terriers will return to action on Tuesday, January 31st in the 2012 season home opener against USC Lancaster. The match is slated for a 2:30 pm start time at the Reeves Tennis Center.