March 24, 2006
BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 49 South Carolina men’s tennis team lost a Southeastern Conference road match to No. 19 LSU, 7-0, on Friday at W.T. Robinson Tennis Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. Carolina’s record dropped to 9-10 overall and 1-4 in SEC play while LSU improved to 11-6 overall and 3-2 in conference action.
LSU swept the three doubles matches from South Carolina to open a 1-0 lead. The Carolina duo of Tom Eklund and sophomore Jaime Cuellar battled LSU’s 12th-ranked doubles team of Ken Skupski and Mark Growcott before falling, 8-5.
South Carolina was already playing without two of its regular top six as Dmitry Babenko and Geraldo Knorr did not make the trip due to injury when a third player went down on Friday. Eklund was forced to retire from his No. 1 singles match with No. 22 Skupski while trailing, 6-2, 1-1, and the Tigers took a 2-0 overall lead. At the No. 5 spot, James Cluskey defeated Thomas Stoddard, 6-1, 6-2, and LSU’s Mark Growcott clinched the match for the Tigers with a 6-1, 6-3, victory over Pedro Rodrigues at No. 3 singles.
The Gamecocks sent the remaining matches to third-set tiebreakers before dropping all three. At No. 2 singles, Cuellar surrendered the opening set to Colt Gaston, 6-1, but fought back to claim the second set, 6-2. Gaston won a super tiebreaker, 10-6, to score the team point for LSU. At No. 6 singles, Carolina’s Adam Adler lost a tight first set to Jose Moncada, 6-4, but recovered to take the second set, 6-2. Moncada pulled out the victory by winning the super tiebreaker, 10-6. In the last match to finish, the Tigers’ Danny Bryan, 6-3, 5-7 (10-5).
South Carolina continues its weekend on the road with a match at No. 16 Arkansas on Sunday, March 26, at 2 p.m. ET.
No. 19 LSU 7, No. 49 South Carolina 0
Singles1. No. 22 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Tom Eklund (USC), 6-2, 1-1 Eklund withdrew due to injury2. Colt Gaston (LSU) def. Jaime Cuellar (USC), 6-1, 2-6, (10-6) third set super tiebreak3. Mark Growcott (LSU) def. Pedro Rodrigues (USC), 6-1, 6-34. Danny Bryan def. Yevgeny Supeko, 6-3, 5-7, 10-5 third set super tiebreaker5. James Cluskey (LSU) def. Thomas Stoddard, (USC) 6-1, 6-26. Jose Moncada def. Adam Adler, 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 third set super tiebreaker
Order of Finish: 1, 5, 3, 2, 6, 4
Doubles1. No. 12 Skupski/Growcott def. Cuellar/Eklund 8-52. No. 14 Bryan/Gaston def. Rodrigues/Supeko, 8-13. White/Cluskey def. Adler/Stoddard, 8-2
Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1
