Gamecocks unable to capitalize on doubles win by Cox, Jones
The No. 35 South Carolina men’s tennis team fell in its final game of the regular season 6-1 to No. 10 Florida on Saturday at the Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville, Fla.
South Carolina (15-10, 2-9 SEC) was able to win all three doubles matches to earn their lone point, but Florida swept all six singles matches to earn the victory. The South Carolina first doubles tandem of sophomores Chip Cox and Nick Jones were able to knock off Billy Federhofer and Nassim Slilam, the nation’s No. 9 doubles team, in a tight 9-8 set. The pair will likely qualify for the NCAA individual doubles tournament.
Despite a Florida singles lineup that featured four players ranked in the top 65, Jones was able to give No. 53 Tripper Carlton a run for his money, losing a first set tiebreaker and then losing a close second set 6-4. At first singles, No. 37 Bob van Overbeek defeated Ivan Machado with relative ease, winning 6-3 and 6-2.
Coach Josh Goffi was pleased with the team’s effort in sweeping the doubles play and said that a potent double’s lineup is a key goal for his team.
“It’s exciting to see that we’re back in doubles,” Goffi said. “It’s gotten better as the year has gone on. Doubles is something we definitely have pride in. We’re aiming to have the best doubles teams in the country as time goes on. If we take doubles, it’s like having a singles player that can go out and get a point every time.”
He also praised Cox and Jones for their win against one of the better tandems in the country.
“They’ve definitely stepped up; I think they have five wins now against the top 20,” Goffi said. “They’re closing in on going to the individual NCAA tournament. And that’s a big step for our individual goals that we’ve had for a couple guys on the team ... they’ll be here two more years and eventually, they’ll be one of the best teams in the country.”
He was pleased with the fighting spirit of some of the singles positions in long straight set matches, but was disappointed with others.
“I think we need to keep on getting better,” he said. “Florida’s entire lineup is very good, and we did have a couple of soft spots. I wasn’t exactly happy with all of our (singles) spots this past Saturday, but I think some of the scores were a little misleading. Both (Andrew Adams and Jones’) matches were very long for two straight set matches. There was a ton of momentum switches in both those matches. Chip Cox’s match was a long one as well.”
He noted that the key goal for his mostly young singles players as the season draws to a close was building confidence, gaining experience, working on their game and catching up to some of the other players for powerhouses in the SEC.
“The idea is developing some of our guys at a much faster rate than other programs, and it’s showing in a lot of our matches. It’s just going to take a little time,” he said. “We have guys working on and developing their games for seven or eight months now, so you add a couple years onto that and we’re confident that (we’ll be able to catch up).”
The Gamecocks wrap up the season at the SEC tournament this week, which will take place April 19-22 at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre at Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss. The tournament is a team competition, and the Gamecocks will likely face Auburn. The Tigers beat South Carolina 4-3 in Columbia on April 1.