Gamecocks take break from SEC play for match against Tigers
Heading into SEC play a little more than a week ago, the South Carolina men’s tennis team was riding high on a 10-1 record.
After Sunday’s loss at No. 49 Vanderbilt, all momentum is gone from that fast start as the match against Vandy marked the Gamecocks’ fourth-straight SEC loss.
All four opponents were ranked, but head coach Josh Goffi says that is little consolation for the losing start to league play.
“They just believed they could beat us a little bit more than we believed in ourselves,” Goffi said. “This last loss (at Vandy) was a little disappointing. After taking three losses in a row, our psyche was down. That’s the downfall of a young team. The guys aren’t seasoned enough to deal with the downs of a season, which are inevitable. Right now it’s tough, because the guys have taken a few losses and they aren’t used to it.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for Carolina as it will travel upstate to take on archrival Clemson tonight. Clemson, which has started ACC play 2-0, has its best team in years, according to Goffi.
“Our team is very excited to go out and play Clemson,” Goffi said. “I think it’s the best team they’ve had in the last four or five years. They just beat Georgia Tech, so we’ll see how our guys do.”
Unlike most of the people in the state, Goffi does not believe the Clemson game is the biggest game of the season, and has made his team aware of that.
“Our season does not revolve around Clemson,” Goffi said. “That’s something I’ve made very clear. We are fortunate to be in the best conference in the country, so our season revolves around SEC play. However, Clemson is our rival, and we’ve had a very successful nonconference season so far, and we look forward to continuing that.”
The Clemson game marks the first of three straight nonconference games, giving the Gamecocks a little break from SEC play where all but one league team on the Gamecocks’ schedule is ranked. Goffi hopes that by the end of this stretch, the team will have restored some confidence.
“We’re on a skid right now, and we have to put a stop to it,” Goffi said. “Hopefully Clemson will be that stop, but you can’t put too much pressure on a young team. There is still time for them to figure some things out for themselves. At this point, we are just trying to stay optimistic, look forward to this next match and create an opportunity to get back on track, regardless of whether it’s against Clemson or not.”
There were some bright spots this week, most notably senior Ivan Machado’s win over the No. 14 player in the country at Kentucky. However, a lack of consistency doomed the Gamecocks, and that’s something Goffi wants to see changed.
“If we put six solid points out there and three solid doubles points, we can go the distance with everybody,” Goffi said. “When you’re in position to win, it’s just about being clutch. We’ve got a lot of guys on the team that are very clutch; the problem is that you need that solid six points. If you have two guys not showing up on a given day, that is going to crush you.”