March 11, 2007

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The University of South Carolina Men’s tennis team dropped a tough SEC match against the No. 38 Tennessee Volunteers, 7-0, at the Sam Daniel Tennis Facility on Sunday. The loss drops the Gamecocks to 9-6 overall and 1-3 in the conference. Tennessee improves to 8-4 (2-2 SEC) with the win.

In doubles play, the Volunteers edged out the Gamecocks by taking two of three matches and the doubles point. At first doubles, the No. 19 duo of Kaden Hensel and Bobby Cameron jumped out to an early lead against Carolina’s Ivan Cressoni and Pedro Rodrigues. With the score, 5-1, the Gamecock duo fought back to 5-4 before dropping the last three games and the match 8-4. Gamecock freshmen Pedro Campos and David Wolff also found themselves in a similar situation falling behind early at second doubles. The pair managed to capture three games in the match but eventually fell 8-3 to Tennessee’s No. 39 tandem of Adam Hubble and Ben Rogers. The third doubles match proved to be the most exciting as Carolina’s Thomas Stoddard and Joseph Veeder battled back and forth with Davey Sandgren and Kiril Tcherveniachki. When the match went to a tiebreaker Stoddard and Veeder were able to pull out the win, claiming the match 9-8.

After the break South Carolina continued to struggle against the talented Volunteers in singles play. At No. 4 singles Wolff was able to claim two games in the first set, but eventually fell 6-2, 6-0 to Derek Stephens. Stoddard also dropped the sixth singles match to Tcherveniachki. After falling 6-0 in the first set the Greenwood, S.C. native fought to win three games in the second before falling 6-3. Leading 3-0 Tennessee’s Rogers was able to defeat Spencer Feldman 6-2, 6-1 on court five to seal the Volunteer Victory.

With the match decided, the Gamecocks top three singles players continued to fight hard in the three remaining unfinished matches. After losing 6-3 in the first set Rodrigues traded games with Tennessee’s Hensel, who is ranked No. 29 nationally, in the second set. After Rodrigues tied the score at four games each, Hensel pulled away to claim a 6-4 second set win. Cressoni also battled Sandgren close at the third position. After a tough 7-5 loss in the first set Cressoni dropped the second set 6-3. Campos was the final Gamecock to fall, giving everything he had against No. 30 Cameron at No. 2 singles. Campos battled to within two games in each set, but eventually fell 7-5, 6-4.

The Gamecocks will return to action Thursday, March 15 when they face UNLV in an out of conference road match. The squad will next play at home when they face LSU on Friday, March 23 at 2 p.m.

No. 38 Tennessee 7, No. 46 South Carolina 0

Doubles
No. 1 #19 Hensel/Cameron (UT) def Rodrigues/Cressoni (USC), 8-4
No. 2 #39 Hubble/Rogers (UT) def Wolff/Campos (USC), 8-3
No. 3 Stoddard/Veeder (USC) def Sandgren/Tcherveniachki (UT), 9-8

Doubles order of finish 3, 2, 1

Singles
No. 1 #29 Kaden Hensel (UT) vs Pedro Rodrigues (USC), 6-3, 6-4
No. 2 #30 Bobby Cameron (UT) vs Pedro Campos (USC), 7-5, 6-4
No. 3 Davey Sandgren (UT) vs Ivan Cressonis (USC), 7-5, 6-3
No. 4 Derek Stephens (UT) vs David Wolff (USC), 6-2, 6-0
No. 5 Ben Rogers (UT) vs Spencer Feldman (USC), 6-2, 6-1
No. 6 Kiril Tcherveniachki (UT) vs Thomas Stoddard (USC), 6-0, 6-3

Singles order of finish: 4, 6, 5, 1, 3, 2