Eagles Lose Heartbreaker in SoCon Opener to UNCG
3/4/2012 8:18:00 PM | Men's Tennis
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team fought mightily but lost a heartbreaker in their conference opener to visiting UNC Greensboro. The Spartans used three three-set singles victories to narrowly edge the Eagles, 4-3. UNCG extended their winning streak over Georgia Southern to four matches while also starting their conference season with a win, where they finished third in the 2011 regular season with an 8-2 record.
"We fought well today; I couldn't have asked for more on that end," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula. "We've been focusing the last few weeks in practice on being more disciplined in sticking with our game plans, and we took steps in the right direction today. We didn't finish well when we had the lead today, and that was the difference. We had significant leads on every single court but didn't put our opponents away."
The Eagles (1-9) gained momentum early in the match by securing the doubles point. Marco Osorio (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) and Daniel Rush (Orange Park Fla.) got the Eagles on the board with an 8-2 win at No. 2 doubles. Alain Garrido (Vigo, Spain) and Andrew Dromsky (Martinez, Ga.) lost a close one, 8-6, at No. 1 doubles to level doubles action at 1-1. With the doubles point on the line, Kyle Hoffman (Sarasota, Fla.) and Albert Codina Sala (Manresa, Spain) rose to the occasion by defeating their opponents at No. 3 doubles with an 8-5 score.
Singles play also opened well for the Eagles. Rush gave the Eagles their second point of the afternoon with a 6-0, 6-1 victory at No. 6 singles. The other five matches came down to the wire, with the Eagles coming out on the losing end in four of them. Hoffman and Dromsky won their first sets at the No. 2 and No. 4 positions before falling in three sets. UNCG took the lead when Garrido lost, 7-5, 7-6 (10-8), at No. 1 singles. Codina Sala leveled the match with a win at the No. 3 position by a score of 7-5, 3-6, 6-1. With the Eagles' hopes on his racket, Osorio fought back to even his match at No. 5 singles but ultimately fell by a score of 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 7-5.
The Eagles will attempt to even their conference record when they host Davidson on Wednesday afternoon. First serve is set for 3 p.m. at Hanner Tennis Complex.
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