The Gamecocks men’s tennis team continued SEC Tournament play on Friday as they faced the No. 3 seed Texas A&M Aggies in the quarterfinals. South Carolina was coming off of a huge win against No. 6 seeded Arkansas and hoped to continue their winning ways by pulling off another big upset.
The day got off to a great start as the Gamecocks went up 1-0 by winning doubles. Yancy Dennis and Andrew Schafer lost the No. 3 doubles match 6-4, but Alex Fennell and Sam Swank were able to secure the No. 2 match with a 6-4 victory. Now it was all up to Gabriel Friedrich and Harrison O’Keefe, the 67th best doubles duo in the country, to break the tie and bring home the doubles win. It was not easy, but they won a back-and-forth match 7-6 to give South Carolina the early lead.
Schafer started the singles matches off by easily defeating Jordi Arconada 6-1, 7-5. Then Texas A&M tied the match 2-2 when Jackson Withrow defeated Wood Benton 7-5, 6-3 in the No.6 match, and Harrison Adams defeated Thomas Mayronne 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in three sets in the No.5 match.
Fennell lost his first set 5-7 in the No.4 match, but he was able to bounce back and went on to win the next two sets 6-3, 6-4 to give the Gamecocks the lead again. Now either O’Keefe or Friedrich had to pull an upset against a nationally ranked opponent to give the Gamecocks the win.
O’Keefe got off to a good start when he won the first set 6-2 against Texas A&M’s Shane Vinsant (ranked #53 nationally). Then Vinsant came back and won the second set 6-3. The third set was a dogfight as O’Keefe was trying to give the Gamecocks the win and Vinsant was trying to keep his team in the tournament. Ultimately, Vinsant won the No.2 match in a 7-6 thriller.
The match was tied 3-3 and it all came down to the No.1 match between Friedrich of South Carolina (ranked #58 nationally) and Arthur Rinderknech of Texas A&M (ranked #18 nationally). Rinderknech took the first set 6-4, but Friedrich was able to pull off a 7-6 win to force a third set. It all came down to this moment to decide who would advance to the semifinals. Rinderknech eventually won the third set 7-5 to give Texas A&M the win.
The Gamecocks are now 14-15, but this is one win short of being eligible for the NCAA Tournament. Their season has come to an end.