Feb. 13, 2005
Columbia, S.C. – The USC men’s tennis team earned its first sweep of the season on Sunday, downing Wofford 7-0. The Gamecocks (6-1, 0-0 SEC) had no problems with the Terriers, winning the doubles matches in just 40 minutes, and completing the match in a little over three hours on the four courts of the USC Indoor Tennis Facility. Carolina led Wofford (1-6, 0-0 SoCon) throughout the doubles competition, and fell behind just twice in singles.
The three doubles matches were eerily similar to each other, with at least two of the three scoreboards showing the same score at 16 different points during the matches. On courts one and two, USC junior Geraldo Knorr and sophomore Pedro Rodrigues both opened the match serving and both players served to win the matches. On court three, USC freshman Thomas Stoddard served up the winning point to get the win at No. 3 doubles with Gamecock senior Ben Atkinson. Knorr and freshman Jaime Cuellar improved their doubles record to 5-0 on the season, and Rodrigues and sophomore Dmitry Babenko moved to 3-2. The matches would all end in 8-5 USC victories and the three matches wound up, literally within seconds of each other.
As the match moved on to singles, Carolina continued its hot streak, losing just one set in the match, and winning the first three of the singles matches in less than an hour. Knorr earned his first win at the No. 1 singles position this season, while Rodrigues and Cuellar easily defeated Brett Johnson and Alec Wilson, respectively. The two longest matches of the day were at No. 4 and 5 singles, where Atkinson and junior Adam Adler earned tough victories. Atkinson, facing Wofford junior Chris Barlow, would lose the only set of the match in the first set, but came back to easily win the second and third sets for an hour and a half long, 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 victory. Adler came back from 4-1 and 30-love down in the first set to earn a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Terrier sophomore Alex Fridzon in 1 hour, 35 minutes.
South Carolina will play the second half of Sunday’s doubleheader against Samford (2-2, 0-0 Ohio Valley) at 2 p.m. at the USC Indoor Facility. The Gamecocks will return to action next weekend, Sunday, Feb. 20, when they host a doubleheader against Troy and Georgia Southern, beginning at 10:30 a.m. The matches are scheduled to be held at the Sam Daniel Tennis Facility, adjacent to Sarge Frye Field, at the corner of Sumter and Heyward on the campus of USC. The matches are open to the public and admission is free.
