March 9, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina men’s tennis team suffered a 6-1 setback to No. 14 Tennessee in Southeastern Conference play on Sunday. The Gamecocks fall to 7-6, 0-4 SEC with the loss, while the Volunteers improve to 12-1, 2-1 in league action. Sophomore Pedro Campos captured Carolina’s lone singles victory against UT.

Tennessee took control early, taking a speedy 8-0 victory at No. 1 doubles. The Gamecocks answered with an 8-4 victory on court two as the duo of Diego Cubas and David Wolff defeated Boris Conkic and Davey Sandgren. The deciding match came on court three where the team of Jaime Cuellar and Ivan Cressoni battled UT’s Jeremy Tweedt and Matteo Fago to a 5-5 stalemate. Tennessee gained momentum, winning two out of the next three games for the deciding 8-6 win.

Carolina looked to even the match in singles action, but UT continued to dominate. J.P. Smith worked quickly for a straight set victory at No. 1 over Cubas (6-1, 6-1) and Fago pushed the UT lead to 3-0 with a 6-2, 6-3 victory at No. 4 over Johannes Pulsfort. Matt Brewer captured a 6-4, 6-3 victory on court six to secure the match, followed by UT victories at No. 2 and 5. Campos captured Carolina’s lone point on the afternoon, defeating Conkic in a third-set tiebreaker, 2-6, 6-3, 1-0(8).

Carolina will travel to UNLV on March 13 before resuming SEC play at Mississippi State on March 21.

Complete results are listed below:

No. 14 Tennessee 6, No. 68 South Carolina 1
Singles

1. JP Smith (UT) def. Diego Cubas (USC) 6-1, 6-1
2. Kaden Hensel (UT) def. Yevgeny Supeko (USC) 6-3, 6-4
3. Pedro Campos (USC) def. Boris Conkic (UT) 2-6, 6-3, 1-0(8)
4. Matteo Fago (UT) def. Johannes Pulsfort (USC) 6-2, 6-3
5. Jeremy Tweedt (UT) def. Ivan Cressoni (USC) 6-2, 7-5
6. Matt Brewer (UT) def. David Wolff 6-4, 6-3
Order of Finish: 1, 4, 6*, 2, 5, 3

Doubles
1. Hensel/Smith (UT) def. Campos/Pulsfort (USC) 8-0
2. Cubas/Wolff (USC) def. Conkic/Sandgren (UT) 8-4
3. Tweedt/Fago (UT) def. Cuellar/Cressoni (USC) 8-6
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3