May 12, 2001

LOS ANGELES, Calif. –
South Florida’s Jorge Escallon won the deciding match at No. 5 singles, helping South Florida pull out a 4-3 decision over South Carolina in a first round match at the NCAA Men’s Tennis Regional at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center Saturday. The loss ends South Carolina?s season at 13-13.

With the match tied at 3-3, Escallon defeated South Carolina’s Carl Wermee, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5 to advance the Bulls to Sunday’s second round. USF will face the winner of Saturday’s afternoon match between No. 3 UCLA and Sacramento State.

The Bulls began the match by capturing the doubles point with victories at No. 1 and No. 3 doubles. Boris Babic and Jit Shaw downed the Gamecocks? Rodrigo Pacheco and Wermee, 8-4, at No. 3, while Paco Antelo and Martin Wetzel defeated Carolina?s David Nelson and Seth Rose, 8-6. The No. 2 doubles match was suspended, and the Bulls led, 1-0.

Carolina then split the singles portion of the match. The nation?s seventh-ranked player, Guillaume Legat, won a hard-fought, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 match over South Florida?s Antelo at No. 1. The Gamecocks also got victories from Nelson at No. 4 (def. Nadim Naser, 6-1, 6-2) and Pacheco at No. 6 (def. Shaw, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.

South Florida captured the match with wins at No. 2 (Wetzel d. Rose, 6-4, 6-2), No. 3 (Babic d. Marcus Westman, 6-1, 7-6 (1)) and the clinching match at No. 5.

Doubles
1. Antelo/Wetzel (USF) def. Nelson/Rose (USC), 8-6
2. Legat/Westman (USC) vs. Escallon/Naser (USF), Susp.
3. Babic/Shah (USF) def. Pacheco/Wermee (USC), 8-4
USF Wins Doubles Point

Singles
1. (7) Guillaume Legat (USC) def. (83) Paco Antelo (USF), 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
2. Martin Wetzel (USF) def. (85) Seth Rose (USC), 6-4, 6-2
3. Boris Babic (USF) def. Marcus Westman (USC), 6-1, 7-6(1)
4. David Nelson (USC) def. Nadim Naser (USF), 6-1, 6-2
5. Jorge Escallon (USF) def. Carl Wermee (USC), 6-2, 6-7(4), 7-5*
6. Rodrigo Pacheco (USC) def. Jit Shaw (USF), 6-1, 3-6, 6-2
* Denotes Clinching Match