March 7, 2004
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The 19th ranked Gamecock men’s tennis team fell for the third time this week, this time to the 22nd ranked Commodores of Vanderbilt, 6-1. South Carolina (10-3, 0-2 Southeastern Conference) were unable to beat their third ranked opponent in a week while Vanderbilt (6-2, 2-0 SEC) notched their second upset of the weekend, after beating No. 3 Florida 5-2 on Friday.
The doubles point quickly went Vanderbilt’s way as Scott Brown and Chad Harris teamed up to beat Tom Eklund and Marcus Westman 8-3 at No. 1 doubles. Shortly thereafter, Zach Dailey and Greg Sossaman beat the Brazilian duo of Geraldo Knorr and Pedro Rodrigues 8-4 to award the doubles point to Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt then took a quick 3-0 lead on the match, notching quick wins at No. 3 and No. 6 singles. At three, Carl Wermee was unable to record his second consecutive win over a ranked singles opponent, falling to No. 52 Scott Brown, 6-4, 6-0. At six, Ben Atkinson’s streak of six consecutive singles wins fell Sunday as he lost to Greg Sossaman, 6-3, 6-2.
Geraldo Knorr gave Carolina their only point of the day with a win over Lewis Smith, 6-2, 6-4 at No. 5 singles, making the match a 3-1 deficit for Carolina. However, Pedro Rodrigues fell to the 64th ranked singles player in the nation, Matthew Lockin, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 as Vanderbilt sealed the win.
Closing out the rest of the match, Marcus Westman lost at No. 1 singles to 24th ranked Chad Harris in his third consecutive loss to a ranked opponent, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. At No. 2 singles, Tom Eklund fell to 47th ranked Zach Dailey, 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (9).
The Gamecocks now travel to Orlando, Fla., to take on the sixth ranked (NAIA) Warriors of Webber International in a break from conference action. South Carolina returns to SEC action to face Alabama, Friday, March 19 at 2 p.m. at the Sam Daniel Tennis Facility.
