South Carolina drops first match of season to Memphis, earns win against Harvard
The men’s tennis team rebounded to salvage a 1-1 record in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Kickoff Weekend.
A dramatic comeback in the first match fell short as the No. 18 Gamecocks lost 4-2 to the then-No. 21 Memphis Tigers.
After losing the doubles round, the Gamecocks were down 3-0 as senior Tsvetan Mihov and junior Thiago Pinheiro lost their singles matches.
The comeback started when senior Chip Cox won his match and freshman Andrew Schafer dominated in his singles match, winning 6-1, 6-1.
With the Gamecocks down only 3-2, the rally was halted as junior Kyle Koch fell in his set.
“[Memphis] is a big ball striking team. They’re all a bunch of tall guys that charge forward very fast and have the ability to take points very quickly and initially it overwhelmed our team,” coach Josh Goffi said. “After a very tight doubles loss we came out and played like we lost the doubles point, which is something we try not to do. We got down a little bit, but the good part about our team is that we’re resilient and we were able to come back and fight.”
With a chance at redemption on Sunday, South Carolina faced No. 26 Harvard in the third-place match.
The tide shifted early on in the match with the Gamecocks winning the doubles round and taking the 1-0 lead into singles.
In singles, the team was off to a fast start, leading in five of the six matches.
Schafer quickly won his match, clinching the victory in straight sets (6-5, 6-5, 6-1) and giving the team a 2-0 lead over Harvard.
Schafer, a true freshman this year, won both of his singles matches this weekend and only lost one of his two doubles matches. The doubles loss he suffered against Memphis was his first loss of the season.
“Andrew is a good player he’s very good in his position down there at 6. He’s just a tough player to beat,” Goffi said. “As a freshman, he’s initially nervous in the first couple of matches last weekend. But, he came out with a great intensity to compete and, at all costs, get the win. And he did.”
After a victory by junior Andrew Adams, the Gamecock team victory was clinched when senior Chip Cox won his match in a tiebreaker (6-5 (4), 6-5 (2)).
“It’s really tough to come back after that loss, they weren’t quite ready to compete at that point,” Goffi said. “I think they realized that and made some adjustments; they got the engines started and got the energy pretty high to get going. It started out with a great doubles point. I think the doubles point was massive for both teams today because both teams lost yesterday. The doubles point was a pivotal point in the game to gain early momentum. We ended up being able to squeak it out, and it really saved the day.”
With the resilience the team has, the Gamecocks look to move forward and improve after the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
“We need to make some adjustments but [this weekend] was a great opportunity to see the areas of improvement that we need to make,” Goffi said. “But overall, the competition level was great. Guys competed hard both days. I’m extremely proud of them coming back today and competing the way they did.”
The Gamecocks (3-1) travel to Georgia Tech on Friday and look to rebound from the team’s first loss of the season.
“We were just careless in certain parts of each individual match and we make adjustments on and we’ll learn from those and if we take care of those spots, we’ll get through those matches more often than not,” Goffi said. “The ability to bounce back and not let the bleeding continue, our guys put a stop to it today. That’s the sign of a great team, the ability to bounce back after a tough loss and get a great win against a great team.”