March 7, 2008
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina men’s tennis team suffered a 7-0 defeat to No. 3 Georgia at the Indoor Fieldhouse on Friday. The match was moved inside due to inclement weather within the Columbia area. The Gamecocks fall to 7-5, 0-3 SEC with the loss, while Georgia improves to 12-1 with a 3-0 mark in conference action.
Georgia earned the doubles point behind convincing wins at No. 1 and 2. Jamie Hunt and Nate Schnugg joined forces to defeat South Carolina’s Yevgeny Supeko and Diego Cubas, 8-2 at No. 1. The Bulldogs’ Travis Helgeson and Javier Garrapiz also captured an 8-2 victory at No. 2 over Carolina’s Pedro Campos and Johannes Pulsfort. An 8-5 Georgia victory at No. 3 secured the sweep.
South Carolina held early leads at No. 1, 3 and 4 singles. All three matches advanced to tiebreakers in the opening set. After a stellar first set at No. 1 singles that saw the match tied at 6-6, Cubas held a 6-3 lead in the breaker, but Schnugg battled back to a 6-6 tie. The duo matched points until Schnugg took a slight lead at 10-9, but Cubas played a brilliant ball at the net over the shoulder of Schnugg to even the tiebreak at 10-all. A misfire from Cubas gave UGA the slight 12-11 advantage and Schnugg played solid down the stretch, winning the tiebreaker 16-14 and the set 7-6. Cubas was unable to match Schnugg in the second set, falling, 6-1.
Pulsfort at No. 4 also advanced to a first-set tiebreaker. Vitullo edged Pulsfort 7-5 in the opening set breaker and followed with a convincing 6-1 victory in the second set to take the match. Georgia also earned a victory at No. 3 singles where Campos and Garrapiz battled through three sets. Garrapiz took the upperhand with a 6-4 win in the opening set, but Campos answered with a 6-4 victory in set two. Garrapiz collected a 6-2 win in the third set to clinch the match.
The match of the day came at No. 2 singles. Hunt and Supeko battled for nearly three and a half hours, through three hard-fought sets. Hunt got the best of Supeko in the first-set breaker, 10-8, but Supeko battled back in the second set, taking the tiebreaker, 12-10. The marathon ended with a 6-3 UGA victory in the third set to take the match.
The Bulldogs also earned wins at the No. 5 and 6 positions to complete the 7-0 sweep.
Complete match results are listed below. South Carolina returns to SEC play this Sunday, hosting No. 14 Tennessee at 1 p.m. at the Sam Daniel Tennis Facility.
Georgia 7, South Carolina 0
Doubles:
1. Jamie Hunt/Nate Schnugg def. Yevgeny Supeko/Diego Cubas, 8-2
2. Travis Helgeson/Javier Garrapiz def. Pedro Campos/Johannes Pulsfort, 8-2
3. Drake Bernstein/Josh Varela def. Ivan Cressoni/David Wolff, 8-5
Order of finish: 1, 2, 3
Singles:
1. Nate Schnugg def. Diego Cubas, 7-6(14), 6-1
2. Jamie Hunt def. Yevgeny Supeko, 7-6(8), 6-7(10), 6-3
3. Javier Garrapiz def. Pedro Campos, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
4. Christian Vitulli def. Johannes Pulsfort, 7-6(5),6-1
5. Josh Varela def. Ivan Cressoni, 6-3, 6-4
6. Drake Bernstein def. David Wolff, 7-6(6), 6-2
Order of finish: 1, 4, 3*, 5, 6, 2
* indicates clinching match
