Eagles Win Three Singles and One Doubles Flights at Citadel Fall Invitational
10/29/2012 7:21:15 PM | Men's Tennis
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Georgia Southern Men’s Tennis battled the opponents and the effects of Hurricane Sandy this weekend to finish the fall season on a successful note at the Citadel Fall Invitational. In singles play Matthijs Verdam, Rayane Djouad and Patrick Doherty won their singles flights while Doherty teamed with Daniel Rush for a doubles flight win.
“We’ve learned a lot during the fall season, but we’ve got a lot of work to do before the spring season starts. I feel we can compete for a Southern Conference Championship this spring,” said head coach Nick Zieziula. “Rayane (Djouad) capped off a great fall season with three singles victories.”
Top-honors for the Eagles this weekend went to Djouad who posted a 3-0 record this weekend with a 6-2, 6-2 win over The Citadel’s Peter Bleach, a 6-3, 6-1 win over Bethune Cookman’s Leonardo Lima and a 6-4, 7-5 win over USC Upstate’s Tvon Haessig. The Frenchman won the tournament’s second flight with the unblemished record.
Verdam won the top flight with a 2-1 record. The senior’s only loss came against USC Upstate’s Matthias Kidler, a 6-4, 6-0 defeat. The native of The Netherlands responded by ousting opponents from Bethune-Cookman and The Citadel by 7-5, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-2 margins to take the flight with a 2-1 record.
Patrick Doherty won his flight with a 2-0 record, downing Justin Wycoff from The Citadel, 6-2, 6-0 and John Armstrong, also of The Citadel, 6-1, 6-3. Overall, the Eagles went 14-9 in singles play with Albert Codina Sala and Rafael Racy posting 2-1 records in the fifth and sixth flights to finish in second place in their respective flights.
In doubles play the Eagles struggled to a 5-6 overall record as USC Upstate won the top three flights. The team of Patrick Doherty-Daniel Rush went 2-0 with a pair of wins over teams from The Citadel to win the fourth doubles flight, but the remaining GSU teams each went 1-2, finishing out of championship contention.
With the fall season in the books, Georgia Southern opens the 2013 spring season on January 26th at Mercer. The Eagles are on the road for their first five matches before hosting East Carolina and Central Florida on February 22nd and 24th.
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