Men’s Tennis Posts Solid Showing at Southern Intercollegiate

// SOUTHERN INTERCOLLEGIATE DRAWS //

ATHENS, Ga. – Georgia Southern Men’s Tennis opened the 2012 fall campaign at the Southern Intercollegiate Championships in Athens, Ga. Albert Codina Sala led the team in singles with a 2-1 record, reaching the Division II Round of 32. On the doubles side, Kyle Hoffman and Marco Osorio reached the Division II Round of 16.

“We have a special group of guys this year that have really committed to stepping up their play and moving this program forward,” said head coach Nick Zieziula. “The six that were privileged to represent the program at UGA this weekend competed with great heart, but we got away from our performance goals at some critical points in matches, and that led to us being on the wrong end of some tight scores. Hopefully, the taste of some early season disappointing defeats will help to continue to fuel our mental sharpness at practice.”

Codina Sala opened up with a come-from-behind victory over Tennessee Tech’s Vasily Eremeev, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3. In the second round, he downed Lipscomb’s Colby Shaw by a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 margin to earn a spot in the round of 32. With a trip to the round of 16 on the line, Codina Sala fell 6-2, 6-2 to Casey Kay from Georgia.

Kyle Hoffman earned GSU’s only other main draw victory with a win over Mercer’s Elbert Beekman in the Division II First Round by a 6-2, 6-0 margin. In the next round, Hoffman fell, 6-3, 7-6 (7) to Nathan Rakitt from Georgia Tech.

On the doubles side, the pair of Hoffman and Marco Osorio opened with a win over Chattanooga’s Stephen Crofford and Chris Smith, 8-3, before falling to North Florida’s Julien Belair and Moritz Buerchner in the round of 16, 8-4.

The team of Codina Sala and freshman Rafael Racy took a preliminary round win, 9-7, over Matthew Johnson and Jorge Wilton from Kennesaw State to earn a spot in the Division II Doubles main draw. In the first round, the pair fell, 8-4, to North Florida’s Fernando Costa and Pedro Davisson.

Georgia Southern’s representatives in the Division I Doubles draw earned a tough opening round match against the seeded pair of Hernus Pieters and Ku Singh from Georgia. Andrew Dromsky and Oliver Webb battled hard, but went down a break late to fall, 8-6 to the pair from Georgia that reached the quarterfinals.

Dromsky was the Eagles only singles representative in Division I, he fell 6-2, 6-3 to Florida’s Gordon Watson. In the consolation round he was downed 6-4, 6-2 to East Tennessee State’s Juan Ramirez.

Racy, in his first collegiate action, opened with a loss to eventual Division II finalist David Orces from The Citadel, 7-5, 6-1. In the consolation round, Racy won the opening set 6-2, but dropped the second set 6-2 and the tiebreaker 1-0 (8).

Southern hosts the 2012 Georgia Southern Championships on October 5-7 on the Hanner Tennis Courts in Statesboro.

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Category: Men's Tennis

Published on Monday, 10 September 2012 13:33