Gamecocks get first SEC win against Alabama
For a while Saturday, the South Carolina men’s tennis team looked like it would complete the weekend sweep against SEC foes Alabama and Auburn on its senior day.
In the end, the Gamecocks had to settle for the split after Auburn clawed back for a 4-3 victory. On Friday night, USC picked up its first SEC win of the season with a 4-3 victory over the Crimson Tide.
Against Auburn, USC got off to a quick start, taking all three doubles matches. Freshmen Kyle Koch and Carl Eguez got things started with an 8-5 victory over Auburn’s Daniel Cochrane and Lukas Ollert. Thiago Pinheiro and Ivan Machado followed that up with an 8-6 win over Dennis Lengsfeld and Lucas Lopasso. Sophomores Chip Cox and Nick Jones finished the sweep with a narrow 9-8 victory over the No. 16 doubles team in the country in Alex Stamchev and Andreas Mies.
With that victory, Equez and Koch improved to 9-1 overall and, more importantly, 5-0 in the SEC.
Head coach Josh Goffi has been happy with how his doubles teams have played thus far, especially against a good Auburn team on Saturday.
“We are finally getting our doubles under control,” Goffi said. “Today was great; we executed in every position. That is a good team, they win a lot of doubles points and the fact is that we took it to them today. I think we’re making large steps in the right direction late in the season, which is always a good thing to see.”
The Gamecocks were able to carry over the doubles momentum to the first match of singles as Koch easily dispatched Auburn’s Michael Wardell 6-0, 6-1 for his first SEC singles win of the season.
“It felt really good, in the fashion that I did it,” Koch said. “I felt like it really helped out our team and gave us the best chance of winning today. As for doubles, I feel like me and Carl are playing really good doubles right now. We’re taking care of the ball as we have to and we are playing well as a team.”
However, after the Koch victory put the Gamecocks up 2-0, Auburn (15-6, 4-4 SEC) started to put themselves back into the game. They picked up their first point when Lucas Lopasso defeated Cox 6-1, 6-4.
The Tigers then tied up the match when Alex Stamchev defeated Jones 6-3, 6-4. A few minutes later, freshman Andrew Adams improved to 25-9 on the season as he defeated the Tiger’s Cochrane 6-3, 6-2 to put USC back up, 3-2.
That would be the Gamecocks’ (14-8, 1-7 SEC) last win of the day, however, as Auburn’s No. 27 singles player Andreas Mies defeated No. 121 Machado 6-3, 7-5 and Ollert defeated Pinheiro 6-4, 6-4.
Friday against Alabama, USC took two of three doubles matches and then split the six singles matches, which was good enough to gain the 4-3 victory.
Goffi was pleased with the win, the team’s first SEC win of the season.
“We’re a young team and we press a little bit, so it was great to be able to get that win,” Goffi said. “I’m extremely proud of our team for stepping up and getting a win against someone like that.”
For USC’s two seniors, Machado and Henry Walker, it was an emotional day as they wrapped up their careers at Carolina Tennis Center Saturday.
“Of course it’s kind of emotional, because it’s the last time I’m going to play here and it’s a different feeling,” Machado said. “But we were looking forward to this match because we knew we could win. I didn’t feel like it was much different; I always prepare for any match the same way.”
Walker showed he earned the respect of his teammates and coaches when he was named captain of the team before the start of the season, despite playing sparingly throughout his USC career. When asked about senior day, Walker said the day was more about the team, rather than just the seniors.
“It’s a high honor for me,” Walker said of being named captain. “It meant a lot coming from my teammates. However, I wanted [today] to be like any other match. I didn’t want it to be about senior day. I wanted it to be just another match and it kind of felt like any other home SEC match. But it was a little emotional since it was our last home match of the season.”