Adams Ends Run in NCAAs in Round of 16
May 23, 2014
ATHENS, Ga. – South Carolina junior Andrew Adams closed out his run through the NCAA Singles Championship Friday with a 6-4, 6-1 loss to No. 39 Denis Nguyen of Harvard. The Gamecocks’ top singles entry finishes the season with a 15-10 singles record. Final rankings will be released next week as will the official announcement of All-America selections, which will include Adams.
“Today was Nguyen’s day, capitalizing on some riskier play early in the match to set the tone,” South Carolina head coach Josh Goffi said. “Major credit goes to him for going out and getting it today. This week, though, Andrew has established himself as a top player going into next year and should gain confidence knowing that he is one of the best competitors in college tennis, and I couldn’t be happier for him. He deserves every bit of the All-American status he earned.”
After two days of quick starts, Adams found Nguyen was the early aggressor today forcing two break points on Adams in the first game of the match. The Gamecock junior erased the first one, but was on defense for much of the long rally on the second, which Nguyen won to take an early 1-0 lead. Adams trailed 5-1 after another service break, but seemed to find his footing with a break to get to 5-3, finished off with a great return to set up an easy second shot for the win. He held serve to get to 5-4, but Nguyen closed out the set 6-4.
Adams was more efficient early in the second set, winning the first game at Love, but his opponent was unfazed by the resurgence and scored a service break in the third game. Adams challenged Nguyen in the next game, taking the server to deuce, but could not generate the break point needed to get back on serve. The success buoyed Nguyen, who won the next three games to score the victory and a spot in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
“This tournament was a great cap to the year we had and also a great stepping stone for this program,” Goffi added. “We are establishing that we develop All-Americans, are consistently on a national stage and moving the program along on an upward trend.”
In Thursday night action, South Carolina’s top duo of Chip Cox and Tsvetan Mihov got a late call-up to the NCAA Doubles Championship. The No. 30 team in the nation was the second alternate going into the event, ready to step in if a team withdrew from the event. That call for the Gamecocks’ second-straight appearance in the event came late Thursday and they took on No. 3 Peter Kobelt and Kevin Metka of Ohio State. The Buckeye duo, which entered the event with a 27-6 overall record, delivered a 6-1, 6-2 win to move on to the Round of 16.
