April 18, 2002

Knoxville, Tenn. – South Carolina’s No. 21 ranked men’s tennis team opened up the SEC Men’s Championship with a 4-2 victory over Arkansas on Thursday. After battling the heat to avenge a 4-3 loss to the Razorbacks on March 10th, USC improves to 16-7 on the year (5-7 SEC). Arkansas falls to 14-9 (4-8 SEC).

Wins out of the No. 2 and No. 3 position propelled the Gamecocks to an early 1-0 lead in the match. Seth Rose and Carl Wermee were the victorious Gamecocks at No. 2, while Ben Atkinson and David Nelson clinched the doubles point with a victory at No. 3.

South Carolina landed three victories in singles to put the match away. Playing at No. 1, #39 Seth Rose started things off with a 6-4, 6-3 win over #31 Oggie Kolev. #119 Marcus Westman followed suit with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Eduardo Pacheco out of the No. 4 position. Senior, David Nelson closed things out for the Gamecocks with a 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 victory out of the No. 3 slot over Magnus Kullenberg.

The Gamecocks advance to Friday’s quarterfinal round where they will battle the nation’s No.1 ranked team, the Georgia Bulldogs. Play is scheduled to begin at 2:00 at the Varsity Courts on the campus of the University of Tennessee.

Match Results

South Carolina 4, Arkansas 2

Singles:

No. 1 #39 Seth Rose (USC) def. #31 Oggie Kolev (UA), 6-4, 6-3
No. 2 #102 Nathan Price (UA) def. #73 Angelo Niculescu (USC), 6-3, 0-6, 6-3
No. 3 David Nelson (USC) def. #97 Magnus Kullenberg (UA), 6-7, 6-4, 6-2
No. 4 #119 Marcus Westman (USC) def. Eduardo Pacheco (UA), 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
No. 5 Aleksey Bubis (UA) def. Carl Wermee (USC), 6-4, 6-0
No. 6 Rodrigo Pacheco (USC) vs. Kristofer Ivarsson (UA), 5-7, 6-3, 5-4 susp.

Doubles:

No. 1 Bubis/Kolev (UA) vs. Westman/Nicelescu (USC), 7-5 (susp.)
No. 2 Rose/Wermee (USC) Pacheco/Kullenberg (UA), 8-3
No. 3 Nelson/Atkinson (USC) def. Price/Azevedo (UA), 8-5