Carolina Falls to Seventh-Ranked Texas A&M
COLUMBIA, S.C.- South Carolina men’s tennis, No. 18 in the latest Oracle/ITA Team Rankings, dropped just its third home match in the past two season in a hard-fought 5-2 loss to seventh-ranked Texas A&M on Friday afternoon at the Carolina Tennis Center. Fifth-ranked Paul Jubb fifth-straight, improving to 13-1 in dual-matches so far this season.
“At spots we were good, at other spots we weren’t very good and didn’t put ourselves in a good spot to win the match today,” said Head Coach Josh Goffi. “Our level is good but there’s been some moments in matches where we’re fumbling, but that’s expected with a young group like this. Today, we just had a few too many slip ups that Texas A&M took advantage of.”
Carolina fell behind early in the doubles point and were unable to recover on two of the three courts despite a shift in momentum midway through the doubles session. Joseph Brailovksy and Jake Beasley won their second-straight on court two, but the Gamecocks’ No. 3 pair was unable to complete its comeback attempt as the Aggies went ahead 1-0 with wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 spots.
The Aggies carried momentum onto the singles courts, winning four of the six opening sets. Texas A&M picked up a quick win on court four and followed up with wins on courts two and three just moments apart to clinch the team win at 4-0.
Jubb broke serve to even his first set at 3-3 and went on to win the next three games for a 6-3 first set win. Jubb later held off a late charge from No. 77 Jaun Carlos Aguilar, closing out his fifth-straight singles win with a 7-5 win in the second.
Beau Pelletier fought through a tight first set, winning deuce points for 2-2 and 3-2, respectively before eventually dropping the first 7-5. Pelletier bounced back with a 6-2 win in the second set and dominated the third-set tiebreaker, 11-2. Pelletier has now won three-straight and improves to 7-2 in singles matches at the Carolina Tennis Center.
The Gamecocks will have a quick turnaround as they prepare to host LSU in their home finale on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET. The match, which was originally scheduled for Sunday, was moved up due to the potential for severe weather in the Columbia area.
Doubles Results:
1. No. 23 Juan Carlos Aguilar/Barnaby Smith (TAMU) def. No. 63 Paul Jubb/Raphael Lambling (SC), 6-2
2. Joseph Brailovsky/Jake Beasley (SC) def. Kevin Lam/Hady Habib (TAMU), 6-4
3. Noah Schachter/Valentin Vacherot (TAMU) def. Beau Pelletier/Daniel Rodrigues (SC), 6-4
Order of finish: 1,2,3
Singles Results:
1. No. 5 Paul Jubb (SC) def. No. 77 Juan Carlos Aguilar (TAMU), 6-3, 7-5
2. No. 62 Hady Habib (TAMU) def. No. 93 Daniel Rodrigues (SC), 6-3, 6-4
3. No. 32 Valentin Vacherot (TAMU) def. Raphael Lambling (SC), 6-3, 6-3
4. No. 76 Barnaby Smith (TAMU) def. Joseph Brailovsky (SC), 6-1, 6-1
5. Beau Pelletier (SC) def. Noah Schachter (TAMU), 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (2)
6. Austin Abbrat (TAMU) def. Thomas Brown (SC), 6-7 (9), 6-4, 1-0 (8)
Order of finish: 4,3,2,1,5
