Tennis defends home courts with triumph over Charlotte

At home for the first time since opening day, the No. 45 South Carolina men’s tennis team came away with its third victory of the season, beating the Charlotte 49ers 5-2 Saturday afternoon.

“I thought we played pretty well. It was good that everybody on the team got a chance to play in this one,” USC coach Kent DeMars said. “We decided to hold out our No. 1 and No. 4 players. We try to do that a couple times so that everybody on the team gets a chance to play. But I think we’re playing pretty decent right now.”

Carolina (3-2) got off to a strong start early, winning all three doubles matches and earning the highly-coveted doubles point. Since last season, the Gamecocks are 17-0 when winning the doubles point, but have only won once when they didn’t win the doubles point.
“It’s critical. If you don’t win the doubles point, there’s just a psychological edge for whatever reason,” DeMars said. “It seems like it’s only worth one point out of the seven, but if you don’t win it, you have to win four out of six singles. That’s asking a lot. If you win it, you only have to win three and it just makes life a lot easier.”

With usual No. 1 singles player Diego Cubas sitting out, senior Pedro Campos led the way in the top spot, beating Charlotte’s Moritz Bernhoerster 6-3, 6-1. Other singles victories for Carolina came from senior Ivan Cressoni’s 6-4, 6-3 win over Chris Huynh and freshman Harry Menzies’ 6-2, 6-0 win over Anthony Davison.

“Pedro probably stood out the most today. He played very solid in singles and doubles,” DeMars said. “They started off slow in No. 1 doubles and were down 3-0 and came back to win eight out of nine games. Then he went and played well in the No. 1 singles match. I’d say he had the most solid performance of anybody today.”

With another victory under their belt, the Gamecocks will prepare to face No. 46 N.C. State on Tuesday. Having recently scored an upset win over then-No. 33 Michigan, the Wolfpack should prove to be tough challenge.

“You usually need about six wins against teams that are going to make the NCAA Tournament to make it in yourself. Since N.C. State just beat a top team, they’re probably going to be in the tournament,” DeMars said. “If you can start racking up those wins now, you don’t have to win as many in April. Hopefully we can get those six wins before April comes about so we can make the tournament.”