CHARLESTON, S.C. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team battled unpleasant weather conditions and a feisty Wofford squad to rally from a 2-0 deficit and clinch a quarterfinal berth in the SoCon Championship. The Eagles were able to avenge their 5-2 loss to the Terriers in Spartanburg on March 26th. The Eagles join the Georgia Southern Women's Tennis team in making the SoCon quarterfinals, marking the first appearance by the men's team since the 2009 season.
"I'm so proud of the way the guys battled today," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula. "It was a tough day on both teams with the rain delays and venue changes, but I told our guys that we have experienced all that in matches this season. We were able to pull from those experiences and come out on top."
The Eagles (3-19, 1-9 SoCon) began the match ominously by dropping the doubles point. Alain Garrido (Vigo, Spain) and Andrew Dromsky (Martinez, Ga.) gave the Eagles the lead in doubles when they downed Tinus Van Wyk and Rob Galloway at the No. 1 position by an 8-3 score. However, the Terriers leveled doubles play when Jackson Keith and Walker Heffron defeated Derrick Davison (Peachtree City, Ga.) and Daniel Rush (Orange Park, Fla.) at the No. 3 position, 8-5. With the doubles point on the line, Terriers Stuart Robertson and Tom Wood overcame the efforts of Matthijs Verdam (Hilversum, The Netherlands) and Kyle Hoffman (Sarasota, Fla.) to prevail at the No. 2 position, 8-6.
Despite the early deficit and momentum loss, the Eagles picked their heads up and grinded out great efforts in singles play. The Terriers took a 2-0 lead when Hoffman fell to Drew Superstein at No. 3 singles, 6-1, 6-2. However, Dromsky started the comeback by putting the Eagles on the board with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Robertson at No. 2 singles, improving his record to 3-0 from the No. 2 position on the season. Verdam defeated Keith at No. 4 singles by an identical score to level the match at 2-2. The Eagles grabbed their first lead of the match when Marco Osorio (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) extended his winning streak to five matches against Galloway at No. 5 singles, 7-6, 6-2. Freshman Albert Codina Sala (Manresa, Spain) then clinched the 4-2 match victory for the Eagles when he pulled through in a seesaw affair at No. 6 singles over Heffron, 7-5, 6-3. Garrido had split sets and was up a break in the third against Van Wyk before the match was pulled due to the outcome being clinched.
"Wofford played a tough match and made us work for everything," added Zieziula. "We're going to talk about a few areas that we can tighten up tomorrow, and we will be ready to play a tough Samford squad. We had great fan support today, and we owe a big thanks to the women's tennis team for being such vocal supporters to help us out in a big way."
With a semifinal spot on the line, the Eagles will try to keep their momentum going and build their winning streak to three matches when they take on second-seeded Samford on Friday afternoon. First serve will take place at 1 p.m. at College of Charleston Tennis Center, home of the Cougars.
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