Feb. 19, 2006
Seattle – The 10th-ranked South Carolina men’s tennis team dropped its consolation match to Pennsylvania, 4-2, on Sunday at the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle. The Gamecocks (6-4, 0-0 SEC) captured the doubles point and senior Geraldo Knorr won his match at No. 4 singles. Carolina returns to Columbia to take on in-state foe Charleston Southern on Thursday, Feb. 23, at the Sam Daniels Tennis Center.
USC started off the morning perfectly, as Knorr and sophomore Yevgeny Supeko breezed by the Quakers’ Jason Pinsky and Joseph Lok, taking the No. 1 doubles match, 8-5. Senior Tom Eklund and sophomore Jaime Cuellar, who dropped their first doubles match of the season on Saturday, got back on the winning side Sunday, as they downed Jonathan Boym and Mikhail Bekker, 8-6, on court two to capture Carolina’s eighth doubles point of the year.
The Gamecocks could not hold off Penn’s rally in singles however, as the Quakers got three quick singles victories at Nos. 3, 5 and 6, to take a 3-1 lead. USC pulled back a point at No. 4 singles, where Knorr picked up his 13th singles win of the year, defeating Lok, 6-4, 6-4. Eklund and Pinsky were locked in a tight battle at the top singles spot, and the two players split the first two sets to send the match to a deciding third set. The Carolina senior could not hang on for his second upset of a ranked player in as many days however, and fell 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 to the 52nd-ranked Pinsky.
South Carolina now turns its focus to a pair of non-conference home matches this week, as it hosts Charleston Southern and N.C. State. The match between USC and the Buccaneers will be the seventh between the two schools, the last being a 4-0 victory for the Gamecocks in 2001. Carolina has dominated the series with its ACC-border rival, and leads 20-5 all-time against the Wolfpack, including wins in 18 of the last 19 meetings.
