April 8, 2004
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina men’s tennis dropped a close 4-3 decision to Georgia Tech Thursday afternoon in the Gamecock’s final home match of the 2004 regular season. Carolina honored their two seniors: Carl Wermee and Marcus Westman in between the doubles and singles play. USC now travels to Gainesville, Fla., to face the No. 8 Gators of Florida Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
South Carolina jumped off on the right foot, as USC took the doubles point with two quick victories. Tom Eklund and Marcus Westman notched a quick 8-1 victory at No. 2 doubles over Jason Pieters and West Nott. Then Ben Atkinson and Carl Wermee topped Zachary Rath and Marko Rajevac at No. 3 doubles, 8-5 to seal the doubles point.
In singles action, Carl Wermee recorded his third consecutive singles victory with his decisive 6-1, 6-1 win over Jason Pieters at No. 3 singles, giving Carolina the 2-0 lead. Georgia Tech cut the lead to 2-1 as Joao Menano beat Pedro Rodrigues at No. 6 singles, 6-2, 6-1. Carolina pulled ahead by two again with a 6-1, 7-5 victory at No. 2 singles by Tom Eklund over Jose Luis Muguruza.
Georgia Tech then began a rally as Scott Schnugg notched a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Marcus Westman at No. 1 singles. That was followed by a 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3 win at No. 4 singles for the Yellow Jackets’ Nott over Carolina’s Geraldo Knorr. Tech’s Zachary Rath sealed the victory over Carolina with a 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (4) win over Ben Atkinson at No. 5 singles.
