Sept. 18, 2011

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina men’s tennis closed out its first weekend of play on Sunday with a pair of Gamecocks finishing in the top five of the Duke Fab 4 Invite. Freshman Andrew Adams claimed third place in the Singles Black bracket with a straight-set win as he dropped just one match in his first weekend of collegiate action.

Adams suffered just one loss over the weekend, falling to a top-50 player. On Sunday he sealed his third place in the bracket with a workman-like 6-4, 6-4 victory over Louisville’s Andrew Carter. In the Blue bracket at the top of the event, Nick Jones took fifth place with a commanding 6-3, 6-1 win over Joey Burkhardt of North Carolina. Sophomore Chip Cox took third on the consolation side of the White bracket, rallying back for a 10-4 win in the third-set super tiebreaker, knocking off Radford’s Nick Sayer.

At UNC Wilmington, South Carolina freshmen Ben Barnette and Kyle Koch battled through extended third-set super tiebreakers, but both came out on the short end. Playing in Flight A, Barnette dropped his first set against VCU’s Camil Salomon 6-0 but took the second 6-3. The two played evenly over the tiebreaker until Salomon pulled out the final two points to win 12-10. Koch’s match went even further into the final tiebreaker. Like his teammate, Koch dropped the first set but came back to win the second. Again, the two freshmen matched each other stroke for stroke through the first 36 points. Koch was the first two stumble, and Cisti took the win 20-18.

The Gamecocks will reunite next weekend to travel to the Southern Intercollegiate in Athens, Ga. Play begins on Fri., Sept. 23.

Duke Fab 4 Invite

Singles Blue
Nick Jones (SC) def. Joey Burkhardt (NC) 6-3, 6-1 (5th place)

Singles Black
Andrew Adams (SC) def. Andrew Carter (UL) 6-4, 6-4 (3rd place)

Singles White
Chip Cox (SC) def. Nick Sayer (RU) 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (4) (Consol. 3rd)

Doubles A Consolation
Hall/Wagner (UL) def. Cox/Jones (SC) 8-5

Doubles B Consolation
Sanchez/Thomson (NCS) def. Eguez/Adams (SC) 8-5

UNCW Collegiate Tennis Invitational

Doubles Flight A
Kyle Koch/Ben Barnette (SC) def. Davison/Kwasniewicz (CHA) 8-1
Koch/Barnette (SC) def. Anderson/Banks (W&M) 8-4

Doubles Flight B Consolation
Hublitz/Williams (UNCW) def. Matt Kealy (UNCW)/Henry Walker (SC) 8-4

Flight A Singles Consolation
Camil Salomon (VCU) def. Ben Barnette (SC) 6-0, 3-6, 1-0 (12)
Paul Cisti (CHA) def. Kyle Koch (SC) 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (18)