Gamecocks Take Home Two Wins in Doubleheader
Feb. 2, 2018
CHARLOTTE, N.C. –
No. 24 South Carolina men’s tennis improved to 7-1 on the season after wins over South Carolina State and Charlotte on Friday. The Gamecocks displayed endurance in their third doubleheader of the spring, going 4-1 over the Bulldogs and 6-1 over the 49ers.
The Gamecocks got off to a strong start in the doubles competition against South Carolina State with a win on court one, but were unable to clinch the doubles point on courts two and three.
South Carolina came back strong in singles, going 4-0 to win the match against the Bulldogs. No. 74 Gabriel Friedrich got the early service break in set one to earn the first match point of the singles competition. The senior went 6-1, 3-1 over Jakub Vitek on court one before his opponent retired. No. 63 Yancy Dennis was the second Gamecock to earn his point on court three, outscoring Juan Ramirez 6-2, 6-1.
Paul Jubb came out strong with an early service break in the first set to defeat his opponent, Aleska Daskalovic, on court two 6-2, 6-3. Thomas Brown stayed strong in the second set to clinch the match, outscoring Diaz on court six 6-3, 6-1.
Fueled by the dropped doubles point in their first match of the day, South Carolina led Charlotte in every doubles match before securing the first point of the match. Jubb and Thomas Mayronne finished first with a 6-2 win over Benjamin Wayand and Sam Rice on court two. Wood Benton and Harrison O’Keefe secured the second win for the Gamecocks on court three by going 6-4 over Alejandro Garcia Moreno and Oriol Puig Forne.
Friedrich and Dennis were neck-and-neck with Luca Keist and Constandinos Christoforou before the court one match got suspended, with South Carolina finishing up 6-5.
In singles, Jubb started strong with two quick service breaks to earn the Gamecocks’ first singles point against Charlotte. Jubb topped Christoforou on court two 6-1, 6-0. O’Keefe followed up with the second singles win, coming out strong in the second set to top Rice 7-5, 6-3 on court six.
Dennis secured the win over Charlotte with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 win on court three. The junior stayed even with Garcia Moreno for most of the match, but came through at the end of each set to clinch the win for the Gamecocks.
Benton battled through three sets on court five, eventually falling to Puig Forne 7-6, 6-2, 6-2. Friedrich also pushed his match against Keist into three sets, finishing with a score of 2-6, 6-0, 7-6 (5). Mayronne earned the last singles point for South Carolina with a win over Wayand, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3.
Quotables: Head Coach Josh Goffi
“We had a bit of a slow start in doubles in the first match, but the guys came back storming through singles. That’s what we’re looking at in these matches: how guys are responding to situations in matches, how they’re responding to doubles points in the singles points and how they’re responding after a win in the first match transitioning into the second match. I think our guys did an unbelievable job today, given the fact that we had a slow start in the doubles point.
“I’m very proud of all the guys. We had a lot of important things happen today. As a team, this is the best match that we’ve played in completing the objectives that we put on the table. We cleaned some things up, obviously, as all teams do. As far as accomplishing objectives, this is definitely one of our better matches.”
Up Next
The Gamecocks hit the road for another doubleheader next Friday in Williamsburg, Va. South Carolina will take on William & Mary and Howard.
