Men's Tennis . March 20, 2025

Gamecocks Face LSU and Mississippi State on the Road

BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 18 South Carolina men’s tennis team hits the road for a four-match stretch, beginning with LSU and No. 20 Mississippi State this weekend. The Gamecocks first face LSU on Fri., March 21 at 6:00 p.m. ET and wrap up the week at Mississippi State for a 2:00 p.m. (ET) match on Sun., March 23.

Gamecock Notables

The Gamecocks went 2-0 last week, defeating Arkansas and Oklahoma at home to extend their conference record to 6-1 and overall to 12-4. South Carolina hosted then-No. 29 Arkansas and quickly cruised past the Razorbacks to a 4-0 shutout victory in an under two-hour match. The Gamecocks secured the doubles point with wins from Connor Thomson & Lucas da Silva (6-4) and Jelani Sarr & Atakan Karahan (6-2). The bottom of the lineup secured the 4-0 win following singles victories from Sean Daryabeigi (6-4, 6-2), Karahan (6-0, 6-3) and Gabe Avram (6-2, 6-0).
South Carolina faced a then-No.18 Oklahoma in conference play for the first time in program history, dominantly defeating the Sooners 6-1. Casey Hoole and Daryabeigi kicked off play with a 7-5 win before Oklahoma leveled out the match with a victory by the same margin over da Silva and Max Stenzer. Sarr and Karahan stepped up to play in the No. 1 position for the first time this season and delivered the clinch with a 7-6(8) victory. The Gamecocks continued their dominance throughout singles action with wins from Hoole, da Silva, Daryabeigi, Avram and Sarr.
Following their wins the Gamecocks earned their highest ITA team ranking of conference play, moving back into the top 20 at No. 18. Across singles and doubles rankings, South Carolina has five tabs. In singles Thomson is No. 54, Daryabeigi is No. 82 and Sarr is No. 106. Thomson and da Silva earned a season high doubles ranking in the latest release, sitting at No. 15. Karahan and Sarr are No. 87 which is their first ranking of dual match season.
Daryabeigi leads the team in the most singles victories, tallying 11 throughout the dual match season with three losses. Hoole (9-5) and Avram (9-1) follow with nine wins apiece. The three doubles pairings each have solid records. Thomson and da Silva are 7-1, winning the last seven consecutive matches. Karahan and Sarr are 6-2 while Daryabeigi and Hoole are 8-3.

Scouting the Tigers

LSU is 9-10 this season with an 8-2 record at home.
The Tigers are coming off a 2-4 loss at No. 21 Tennessee.
LSU has one doubles ranking in ITA’s latest release. Julien Penzlin and Aleksi Lofman are No. 68.

Scouting the Bulldogs

Mississippi State is 14-4 with a near perfect 12-1 record at home.
The Bulldogs are coming off a tight 3-4 loss at No. 30 Georgia.
The team is home to the No. 4 doubles pair in the NCAA, Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez. Mario Martinez Serrano and Niccolo Baroni are No. 39. Sanchez Martinez leads the team in the singles rankings at No. 38 followed by Martinez Serrano (No. 95), Jovanovic (No. 100) and Niccolo Baroni (No. 117).

Series History

The Tigers lead the all-time series record against the Gamecocks 30-20. South Carolina was on a 10-match streak before LSU snapped it last season.
Mississippi State leads the series record against South Carolina 25-13. The last time the two programs faced each other was in the second round of the 2024 SEC Tournament when the Gamecocks topped the Bulldogs 4-2 to advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2021.

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