March 18, 2012

No. 48 South Carolina (12-5) defeated College of Charleston (7-3) in the first game of their final non-conference double header of the season. Four freshmen won singles matches for the Gamecocks on the afternoon as South Carolina improved to 4-0 in matches against in-state foes.

The Cougars threw the opening punch in doubles as Kyle Parker and Mickael Trintignac defeated Nick Jones and Chip Cox 8-3 in the No. 1 spot. Carolina fought back though to pull even with the Cougars, as the Brazilian duo of senior Ivan Machado and freshman Thiago Pinheiro earned an 8-5 victory in the No. 2 spot. The Gamecock pair broke Charleston’s serve to go up 3-1 and never looked back, as the rest of the match was played on serve.

The doubles point would then come down to the No. 3 match, which pitted the Gamecocks’ freshman tandem of Kyle Koch and Carl Eguez against the sophomore pairing Crescente Lesser and Brice Allanic of Charleston. Koch and Eguez took advantage of two early breaks to put themselves up 5-1. The match stayed on serve until 7-4, when Lesser and Allanic came up with a big break to make the match 7-5. The Cougar duo held their serve the next game and South Carolina had the opportunity to close out the match with their next service. Koch and Eguez would hold off three break points during the last game and finally closed out the match 8-6 to give the Gamecocks the doubles point.

As the match moved to singles play, the Gamecocks looked to feed off of their momentum created from the doubles point. Cox worked quickly in the No. 4 spot to give the Garnet and Black a 2-0 lead after his 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Lesser. Freshman Andrew Adams followed suit shortly after by taking care of Delme in the No. 2 spot, 6-3, 6-1, to earn his team leading 12th dual match victory of the season. Adams fell behind 3-1 in the first set, but rallied off five straight games, including two breaks, to win the opening frame 6-3. The Laurel, Md. native was all business in the second set, cruising to a 6-1 victory that put the Gamecocks up 3-0.

Freshman Carl Eguez gave Carolina the match at the No. 6 spot after his swift 6-2, 6-2 victory over Charleston’s Alon Faiman. After the match started on serve for the first four games, Eguez pulled away and won the next four games to win the opening set. The second set was much of the same as Eguez gave Faiman little room to breathe and closed out the second set 6-2 to win the match for the Gamecocks.

The freshman Koch earned his 11th victory of the season in a hard fought three setter over Allanic that ended 6-2, 6-7(7-9), 6-4. The Cougars earned their lone point of the match off of Trintignac’s third set tiebreak victory over Carolina’s Jones in the No. 1 spot.

The Gamecocks are back in action at 4 p.m. today, hosting Coastal Carolina in their final non-conference match of the season.

No. 48 South Carolina 6, College of Charleston 1

Doubles (Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3)
1. Kyle Parker/Mickael Trintignac (CofC) def. (64) Nick Jones / Chip Cox (SC) 8-3
2. Ivan Machado / Thiago Pinheiro (SC) def. Tom Delme/Alon Faiman (CofC) 8-5
3. Kyle Koch / Carl Eguez (SC) def. Crescente Lesser/Brice Allanic (CofC) 8-6

Singles (Order of Finish: 4, 2, 6, 3, 1, 5)
1. Mickael Trintignac (CofC) def. Nick Jones (SC) 6-3, 4-6, 1-0(12-10)
2. Andrew Adams (SC) def. Tom Delme (CofC) 6-3, 6-1
3. (117)Thiago Pinheiro (SC) def. Kyle Parker (CofC) 6-2, 2-6, 6-1
4. Chip Cox (SC) def. Crescente Lesser (CofC) 6-1, 6-2
5. Kyle Koch (SC) def. Brice Allanic (CofC) 6-2, 6-7(7-9), 6-4
6. Carl Eguez (SC) def. Alon Faiman (CofC) 6-2, 6-2