Men's Tennis Opens New Home with 5-2 Win

STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team opened the spring season with a 5-2 victory over Mercer. The team managed to pull through on a chilly Friday afternoon. The Eagles christened their new home facility in a ribbon cutting ceremony prior to the match.

"We played a great first opening match on the courts," said head coach Nick Zieziula. "The energy from the fans really helped, and the freshmen competed very well today for their first team match."

The Eagles gained an early lead by securing the doubles point. Mercer won No. 3 doubles to open the scoring, but this was countered by the freshmen team of Andrew Dromsky (Martinez, Ga.) and Kyle Hoffman (Sarasota, Fla.) who won 8-5 at No. 2 doubles. With the doubles point on the line, the upperclassmen duo of Matthijs Verdam (Hilversum, The Netherlands) and Alain Garrido (Vigo, Spain) prevailed 9-8 in a tiebreaker at No. 1 doubles over Mercer's top tandem of David Barton and Pierre Tafelski. Garrido hit a scintillating forehand return and then served out the tiebreaker on his own racket to take it 7-3.

"I was especially impressed with the way Matthijs and Alain stayed composed to win the doubles tiebreaker," added Zieziula.

Sebastien Felt (Vienna, Austria) began singles play for the Eagles but fell to Vincent DeLise at No. 5 singles. His doubles partner, Daniel Rush (Orange Park Fla.), got the Eagles back on the right track by securing his first career dual match win at No. 6 singles. The back and forth battle saw Rush prevail in three sets by a score of 6-1, 0-6, 6-0. Senior Garrido split sets at No. 2 singles, but he broke his opponent's serve early in the third set and never looked back to notch the victory 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.

The freshman Hoffman showed much tenacity in his first dual match singles victory over Mercer's Joao Pagan at No. 4 singles. The first set was a seesaw affair, won by Hoffman by an 11-9 score in a tiebreaker. Hoffman fought off multiple set points before finally capitalizing on his opportunity. He then proceeded to take the second set by a score of 6-3 to secure the match victory for the Eagles. Freshman Albert Codina Sala (Manresa, Spain) fought valiantly but fell to Peter Tauchner in three sets at No. 3 singles. Finally, No. 1 singles player Verdam came from behind to win 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.

The Eagles return to action on Saturday as they host the Ospreys of North Florida at 1 p.m. They then hit the road for a three-game swing through Florida next weekend.

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Category: Men's Tennis

Published on Friday, 27 January 2012 20:33