Men's Tennis . March 29, 2025

Gamecocks Upset No. 12 Texas A&M

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 26 South Carolina men’s tennis team earned its fourth upset victory of the season against No. 12 Texas A&M on Friday night, defeating the Aggies 4-2 in a tightly contested three-hour match.

South Carolina set the tone early, earning the doubles points with wins from the top two positions. The Gamecocks started off slow, closely trailing on all three courts before flipping the script to take the lead from all three positions nearly simultaneously.

No. 87 Jelani Sarr and Atakan Karahan picked up their seventh win of the season with a 6-3 victory. No. 15 Connor Thomson and Lucas da Silva defended their season-high ranking with a 6-4 win over No. 30 Theo Papamalamis and Togan Tokac to secure the early advantage for the Gamecocks.

The Aggies began to fight back at the beginning of singles action, picking up first set wins on four courts. Sean Daryabeigi and da Silva were the lone Gamecocks who won their opening sets with dominant scores of 6-2 and 6-1, respectively. Due to a retirement from Casey Hoole at the top of the lineup, the Aggies were able to get on the board and level out the match 1-1.

The Gamecocks then started to shift gears as Sarr bounced back to win his second set 7-5 moments before da Silva won his match in straight sets to regain the Gamecocks lead at 2-1. Texas A&M responded quickly with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Karahan at the No. 5 position to balance out the match again.

Daryabeigi reclaimed the advantage for South Carolina and got the Gamecocks within one point of clinching the match following the second straight set victory of the night for the Garnet & Black, winning his second set in a 7-6(4) tiebreak.

The decisive moment fell to Thomson and Sarr who were both in decider sets. Sarr was in a neck-and-neck battle, trading off games with his opponent while Thomson jumped to a 4-0 lead before Alan Magadan attempted to stage a comeback, narrowing the deficit to 2-4. The graduate student was able to use a final surge and defeat Magadan 6-2 to clinch the match for the Gamecocks on a forced error.

The Gamecocks continue their Texas tour on Sun., March 31 at No. 4 University of Texas for a 2:00 p.m. (ET) match.

For the latest South Carolina men’s tennis information, continue to follow GamecocksOnline.com or the team on social media (@GamecockMTennis).

(26) South Carolina 4, (12) Texas A&M 2

Doubles (order of finish: 2,1)

#15 Connor Thomson/Lucas da Silva (SC) def. #30 Theo Papamalamis/Togan Tokac (TAMU) 6-4
#87 Atakan Karahan/Jelani Sarr (SC) def. Alan Magadan/Tiago Pires (TAMU) 6-3
Casey Hoole/Sean Daryabeigi (SC) led Ritesh Patil/Luke Casper (TAMU) 5-3

Singles (order of finish: 1,3,5,4,2)