Men's tennis also takes care of business against Appalachian State, sweeping doubleheader
But four other matches were still being battled out. Alexander Kostanov and Johannes Pulsfort both won their first sets but lost their second on long tiebreakers, and they were in the midst of decisive third sets. Jake Bowling and Harry Menzies were victorious in their first sets and were trying to close out their second.
Kostanov was the one to clinch the victory for USC. In the morning, when USC beat Charlotte by a score of 6-1, he won a three-set match in the No. 1 singles spot. Playing at No. 2 singles in the afternoon, he betrayed no sign of tiredness as he dominated the third set for his second victory of the day.
"[Kostanov] is definitely improving with every single match," Goffi said. "He's one of our hardest workers in practice, and it's shown. His game is improving. He's getting a lot of wins."
Pulsfort also pulled out his third set. Although Bowling and Menzies eventually fell in three sets, Carolina was assured of a 5-2 victory over Appalachian State in spite of the absence of Nick Jones, who is battling an injury.
"We had Nick in the doubles [in the morning], and he actually hurt himself a little bit, so we're saving him, hopefully for next weekend," Goffi said. "We competed without Nick in singles, which is a big spot for us. But the team competed very well overall and rose to the occasion. I was really happy with the guys' performance today."
Machado has also been struggling with an injury, but it did not seem to affect him on Saturday, as he dominated both singles matches he played and was part of two winning doubles teams.
"His knee is good. He's dealing with the knee, obviously, but that's what athletes do day in and day out," Goffi said. "He's starting to get his game under control better, and it's good to see, because we need his spot to be strong for the rest of the season."
Appalachian State's head coach, Bob Lake, used to train USC assistant coach Matt Lucas, and the two had time to talk throughout the match. Lake had many positive things to say about the Gamecocks.
"He was impressed," Goffi said. "He was impressed with the way that we fought. Likewise, I was very impressed with the way our guys fought. That's something that we had been lacking in the first four or five matches, competing for the full three hours. Today we competed for about 12 hours straight, which is the whole plan we had initially.
"We're really happy about that. It was a step in the right direction for this team."