Men's Tennis Wins Big on Senior Day, 6-1
4/14/2012 12:07:00 AM | Men's Tennis
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team came through in a big way on Friday afternoon when it capped its regular season slate with a 6-1 victory over The Citadel. The afternoon was highlighted by a Senior Day ceremony prior to the match that celebrated the careers of seniors Derrick Davison (Peachtree City, Ga.), Sebastien Felt (Vienna, Austria) and captain Alain Garrido (Vigo, Spain).
"We played a very solid match today; I am proud of the way the team closed out the season," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula. "The match today says a lot about the leadership that our seniors have provided this year. We have faced a lot of adversity this year, but we haven't backed down, and the team has rallied to work harder every day. That growth has really shown up in our last two matches."
The Eagles (2-19, 1-9 SoCon) got out to an early 1-0 lead in the match when they successfully secured the doubles point. The Eagles' No. 1 doubles duo of Garrido and Andrew Dromsky (Martinez, Ga.) clinched the point by persevering in a seesaw affair over Bulldogs David Orces and James Atkinson. Garrido and Dromsky broke serve twice to take a 4-1 lead only to see the Bulldogs battle back and go up, 6-5. However, the top Eagle tandem won the next three games to take the match, ending with a Garrido overhead to hold his serve after fighting off several break points. Matthijs Verdam (Hilversum, The Netherlands) and Kyle Hoffman (Sarasota, Fla.) had already won the first match for the Eagles at No. 2 doubles when they rallied from a 4-1 deficit to win the final seven games and take the match over Dillon Berkabile and Peter Bleach, 8-4. The Bulldogs did salvage the match at No. 3 doubles when Alex Howle and Elliott Sperr won the big points to close out Davison and Daniel Rush (Orange Park, Fla.), 8-6.
Despite losing the doubles point, the Bulldogs weren't going down without a fight in singles play. Orces proved to be a tough customer when he downed Garrido at No. 1 singles to level the match at 1-1. The Eagles grabbed the lead back at 2-1 when the big lefty, Dromsky, dominated in a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Josh Cook at No. 2 singles. Hoffman put the Eagles up 3-1 when he engineered a hard-fought 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 3 singles over Atkinson. Albert Codina Sala (Manresa, Spain) then put the Eagles in the winner's circle when he clawed his way to a 6-4, 7-5 win over Sperr at No. 6 singles, rallying from a 5-4 second-set deficit. Verdam added the Eagles' fourth singles victory of the afternoon when he ousted Berkabile at No. 4 singles, 6-4, 6-3. Marco Osorio (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) capped the scoring efforts for the Eagles when he pulled through in three sets against Bleach at No. 5 singles, making the final score 6-1.
"We have grown a lot through the year in our ability to deal with momentum shifts, and that was a key today," added Zieziula. "We started off with a big lead at one doubles and let them back in, but we never panicked, so we were able to take the win. At #2, we gave up a 4-1 lead but stayed with our aggressive tennis and were able to turn that into an 8-4 win. That mentality carried over into singles, and that brought us the points we needed against a very feisty Citadel squad."
The Eagles will look to build off their win when they next take the courts in the Southern Conference Tournament on Thursday in Charleston. First-round opponent and match time will be released once the bracket is constructed by the SoCon office.
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