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Men’s Tennis Begins Spring Season at Home with Doubleheader
Men's Tennis  . 

Men’s Tennis Begins Spring Season at Home with Doubleheader

COLUMBIA, S.C. – No. 15 South Carolina men’s tennis begins the spring portion of the 2024-25 season this weekend with a pair of home matches, hosting in-state programs Furman and The Citadel at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., respectively, at the Carolina Indoor Tennis Center on Sun., Jan. 12.

Gamecock Notables

  • South Carolina was ranked No. 15 in the ITA Preseason Coaches Poll, released earlier this week. In the SEC preseason poll the Gamecocks were predicted to finish at the top half of the league at No. 8.
  • Three Gamecocks represented the Garnet & Black in the ITA Fall Season rankings. Sean Daryabeigi and Jelani Sarr were ranked No. 55 and No. 77 for singles. Sarr and Atakan Karahan ranked No. 85 for doubles.

Fall Recap

  • The Gamecocks wrapped up the 2024 fall season with a 53-35 (9-11 ranked) overall singles record and 21-13 (4-5 ranked) doubles record after competing in six total tournaments.
  • Casey Hoole (No. 45), Connor Thomson (No. 65) and Jelani Sarr (No. 118) saw ITA Preseason Singles Rankings while Sarr/Lucas da Silva (No. 82) and Thomson/Hoole (No.24) were ranked for doubles.
  • Hoole defeated a top 10 opponent at ITA All-Americans, winning his match against No. 9 Jack Anthrop of Ohio State 6-2, 7-5.
  • At the ITA East Sectional Championship, da Silva was the runner-up in singles after falling to Paul Ichauspe of Princeton in the final round of the main draw stage. His results qualified him for the NCAA Individual Championship for the first time in his collegiate career.

Scouting the Paladins

  • Furman wrapped up the 2023-24 season with a 13-12 overall record and advanced to the semifinals of the Southern Conference Championship, ultimately falling 2-4 to Samford.
  • Returner Walker Allen led the team last year in singles with a record of 11-8.
  • For the fall portion of this season the Paladins competed in four tournaments including the ITA Carolina Regional Championship where they collected four wins.

Scouting the Bulldogs

  • The Citadel finished 2023-24 with a 8-22 overall record. Similar to Furman the Bulldogs ended their season against Samford at the Southern Conference Championship, falling 1-4 in the quarterfinals.
  • The team competed in one tournament for the fall season, hosting The Citadel Fall Tennis Classic back in October where the Bulldogs picked up three singles wins and one doubles win.

Series History

  • The Gamecocks lead both programs in the all-time series history records, 34-5 for Furman and 33-4 for The Citadel.
  • Against both programs, the first matchup dates back to April of 1951.
  • South Carolina is on a 24-game win streak against Furman. The most recent matchup was on March 24, 2024 when the Gamecocks defeated the Paladins 4-0 at home.
  • The Gamecocks are on a 28-game win streak against The Citadel with the past 12 consecutive victories being 7-0 wins at home.

Follow Along

  • Live streaming will be available for both matches on TrackTennis. Click here for the Furman stream and here for Citadel.
  • Both matches will be streamed on StatBroadcast. Click here for Furman live stats and here for Citadel.

For the latest South Carolina men’s tennis information, continue to follow GamecocksOnline.com or the team on social media (@GamecockMTennis).

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