Feb. 6, 2004

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COLUMBIA, S.C. – No. 23 South Carolina faces USC-Spartanburg and Radford in second of five straight doubleheaders to start off the season for the Gamecocks. This will be the first meeting between Carolina and USCS and Carolina and Radford.

Josh Hausman is in his second year at the helm of the USCS Rifles, who went 20-2 in this inaugural year. Jose Luis Reyes will be leading the Rifles against a Gamecock squad that notched two wins last week against tough competition.

Meanwhile Radford returns everyone from last season’s team that went 68-66 in singles matches and 28-36 in doubles matches. The Highlanders competed at the South Carolina Fall Invitational last fall and Carolina’s Rob Cassidy defeated Joakim Arhammar 6-0, 6-0 in the only match between the two schools at the tournament.

The Swedish Invasion South Carolina has trhee Swedes on its 2004 roster – and all three are expected to lead the Gamecocks this season – with sophomore Tom Eklund and seniors Carl Wermee and Marcus Westman, high school teammates on the Tretorn Tennis Academy.

Home Sweet Home South Carolina begins the 2004 slate with a 12-match homestand. That 12 match stand encompasses almost all of their 17-match home slate for the season. Those home matches will be split among the USC Indoor Facility and the Sam Daniel Tennis Center, which features a brand new LED-display scoreboard.

Competing Against the Best South Carolina enters the 2004 season with a daunting task – one of the toughest schedules in the nation. The Gamecocks are competing against a Southeastern Conference slate that has sent all 12 teams to the NCAA Tournaments in at least the past two seasons. Meanwhile, three of those 11 opponents are currently ranked in the top 10 with 11 of the 12 teams ranked in the top 50.

The Gamecocks will square off against 14 teams ranked in the top 50 this season, including non-conference foes No. 24 Clemson, No. 33 Wake Forest, No. 43 Georgia Tech and No. 50 North Carolina.

An International Affair South Carolina men’s tennis is an international affair with seven of the nine team members being born outside of the United States. Along with the Swedish Invasion of Tom Eklund, Carl Wermee and Marcus Westman, several other team members have migrated to South Carolina. Ben Atkinson hails from Yorkshire, England and Kazuya Otani was born in Kobe, Japan. Meanwhile, Geraldo Knorr and Pedro Rodrigues are from Brazil.

Program Approaching Win No. 600 With the two wins over the College of Charleston and UNC-Wilmington, the Carolina Gamecocks edged closer to approaching the program’s 600th win. Carolina is now 591-329 in the program’s history, for a .642 winning percentage. That record is not surprising, however, as the Gamecocks have been nationally ranked in the final polls during each of Head Coach Kent DeMars 18 year tenure. Moreover, the Garnet and Black have competed in the NCAA Tournament each of the past 10 years.