Eagles Come Up Just Short at 1st Place Charleston
4/9/2012 5:34:00 PM | Men's Tennis
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - The Georgia Southern Men's Tennis team fought long and hard but came up just short at first place College of Charleston on Monday afternoon. The Cougars came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Eagles by a 4-3 score. The win improves the Cougars to 13-3 on the season with an undefeated 7-0 mark in conference play, while the Eagles' three points are tied with UNC Greensboro and Samford for most taken against the Cougars by a SoCon opponent.
The Eagles (1-19, 0-9 SoCon) got the match off to a fine start by grabbing the doubles point in thrilling fashion. With the doubles point on the line, Kyle Hoffman (Sarasota, Fla.) and Matthijs Verdam (Hilversum, The Netherlands) came up huge in the clutch when they put the Eagles in the lead by blanking Tom Delme and Chris Toussaint in a match tiebreaker at No. 2 doubles, 9-8 (7-0). Derrick Davison (Peachtree City, Ga.) and Daniel Rush (Orange Park,Fla.) had previously rallied to tie up doubles play at 1-1 when they downed Stephen Hardy and Billy Kenny at No. 3 doubles, 8-6. The Cougars had taken the early doubles lead when Kyle Parker and Mickael Trintignac ended the two-match winning streak of Alain Garrido (Vigo, Spain) and Andrew Dromsky (Martinez, Ga.) at No. 1 doubles with an 8-4 victory.
The Eagles increased their match lead to 2-0 when Marco Osorio (Tegucigalpa, Honduras) won his third consecutive singles match by disposing of Hardy at No. 6 singles, 6-2, 6-2. However, the Cougars came storming back and won the next four decisions to rally and take the match victory. Crescente Lesser downed Verdam at No. 4 singles to put the Cougars on the board. Trintignac leveled action at 2-2 when he defeated Dromsky at No. 1 singles by a 7-5, 6-2 score. The Cougars grabbed the lead when Alon Faiman bested Albert Codina Sala (Manresa, Spain) by a 6-1, 6-2 score at No. 5 singles. Delme clinched the match victory for College of Charleston when he prevailed over Garrido at No. 2 singles, 6-4, 7-5. Not to be denied, Hoffman outlasted Parker in two tiebreakers to win, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), giving the Eagles their third point of the afternoon.
The Eagles will be able to take many positives away from the close loss to a top-notch opponent. They will look to get back in the win column when they return home to face The Citadel on Friday at 3 p.m. The match will be their last of the 2011-12 regular season and will serve as Senior Day for the Eagle squad. Senior Day festivities will take place prior to the start of the match.
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