No. 25 Men's Tennis Splits Doubleheader
Feb. 9, 2018
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. –
In its third doubleheader of the season, No. 25 South Carolina men’s tennis split Friday’s matches at William & Mary. The Gamecocks swept Howard 7-0 after falling to the host Tribe in their first match of the day.
The Gamecocks started the match against William & Mary strong, taking the doubles point with wins in the #1 and #2 matches. Gabriel Friedrich and Yancy Dennis opened with a win over Alec Miller and Michael Cen 6-4 at the top of the lineup.
Thomas Mayronne and Paul Jubb collected their sixth win of the season with a 6-3 decision in the #2 spot to clinch the point over Christian Cargill and Louis Newman.
The Tribe tied things up with the first singles point of the day, as Sebastian Quiros topped Thomas Brown 6-1, 6-1 at the #6 spot. Jubb put the Gamecocks back in front with a win at #2, taking his first set 6-4 and getting an early start to his second set with a service break in the first game. He finished with a win over William & Mary’s Alec Miller, 6-4, 6-2.
After claiming a win in the #4 match, the Tribe saw Gamecock junior Dennis answer with a hard-fought win over Lars de Boer in the #3 spot. The two veterans traded games through the first set with Dennis delivering the tiebreaker. Dennis stayed steady in the second set, breaking de Boer’s serve to close out his match 7-6, 6-3 to put the Gamecocks back on top 3-2.
The match at the top of the order also went to a first-set tiebreak as #109 Friedrich and Cargill battled it out. With Cargill taking the set, he completed his upset of the Gamecocks’ top player with a 7-6, 6-4 score.
The match came down to the #5 matchup, which saw Wood Benton pick up a first-set tiebreak only to cede the next two sets to Finbar Talcott for a 6-7, 6-2, 6-2 defeat that delivered the win to William & Mary.
Just two hours after finishing their match against William & Mary, the Gamecocks took on Howard, sweeping the Bison 7-0.
South Carolina got a strong start in the doubles competition, sweeping the matches with the doubles duos yielding a combined five games in the three matches, including a perfect 6-0 set from Mayronne and Jubb over Cole Gittens and Devaughn Blackburn.
In singles, the Gamecocks similarly did not yield a set to the. Friedrich took on Karim Shokeir at the #1 singles spot, allowing his opponent only one game to finish 6-1, 6-0.
In his second appearance in the #2 spot this season, Dennis took home a 6-4, 6-3 win over Howard’s Roger Lyn. Mayronne competed in the #3 spot for the second time this season, making quick work of Gittens to finish 6-1, 6-1.
O’Keefe improved to 3-0 in the #4 spot this season with a win over Blackburn. The senior took down his Howard opponent 6-1, 6-2.
Benton had two perfect sets at #5, finishing 6-0, 6-0 over Kyle Martin, and Brown secured the sweep with a win over Benjamin Tyus, finishing 6-1, 6-2 at #6.
Up Next
The Gamecocks compete in their third match of the weekend on Sunday when they take on Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va., at 1 p.m.