No. 19 Gamecocks Take First SEC Win of the Season
March 3, 2017
COLUMBIA, S.C. — No. 19 South Carolina men’s tennis started SEC play on the right foot, defeating LSU, 4-3, Friday, March 3 at the Carolina Tennis Center. The Gamecocks dropped the doubles point for only the third time this season, but bounced back in singles play, taking four straight singles matches for the win. With today’s victory, the Gamecocks improved to 11-2 overall and 1-0 in SEC play.
The doubles pairing of Andrew Schafer and Gabriel Friedrich, playing together for the first time this season, took a 6-2 victory in No. 3 doubles to give the Gamecocks the advantage in the doubles point. The number one and two doubles pairings battled back from 0-3 and 1-3 deficits respectively, but eventually fell in 6-4 and 7-6(5) battles to give LSU the edge heading into singles play.
Schafer continue to show his dominance in singles play, getting off the court first for the fourth straight time. His 6-1, 6-2 victory tied it up, 1-1, with five singles matches still underway. Thomas Mayronne was the next to contribute, his 6-2, 6-2 triumph on court six gave the Gamecocks the 2-1 lead and shifted the momentum for the home team. Alex Fennell also took his point in straight sets, the first going to 7-5, then taking three straight games for a 6-3 second set, increasing the Gamecocks advantage to 3-1.
The remaining three singles matches were forced into third sets. Yancy Dennis clinched the match for the Gamecocks on court four, shutting down his opponent in the third set for a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 win making the score 4-1.
LSU took the final two points of the match after the clinch to make a 4-3 final.
Quotable
Head Coach Josh Goffi: “Starting the SEC season with a win is always important and it always leads into more confidence for our guys moving forward. The last couple of years we’ve started off on a loss and trended downward throughout the season. It’s nice to get LSU at home. We lost a tight, 4-3, match to them last year so we to get a little revenge on them this year is great. I’m sad we lost two tough matches there at the end with Gabriel and Harrison, but those were their two best players and both were great tennis matches. I’m looking forward to Sunday, we have the Aggies coming in and that’s a tough bunch. They’re the ones that took us out last season when we were in the position to win multiple times and ended our season last year here in the SEC tournament so we’re absolutely looking forward to that one on Sunday. We have to clean a few things up, we were a little sloppy today in doubles and a little sloppy in some of our starts but those will be cleaned up by Sunday and we’re looking forward to a good battle.”
Up Next
The Gamecocks return to action Sunday, March 5 to continue their home SEC slate, hosting No. 27 Texas A&M at 12 p.m. at the Carolina Tennis Center. Admission and parking for all home tennis matches are free of charge.
