Men’s Tennis Wins Season Opener 4-3
1/27/2013 1:44:31 AM | Men's Tennis
MACON, Ga. – The Georgia Southern Men’s Tennis (1-0) team beat Mercer (0-2) 4-3 on Saturday afternoon at the LeRoy Peddy Tennis Center in Macon, Ga. After clinching the doubles and the first singles points, the Eagles lost three matches straight before senior Mattijs Verdam (Hilversum, The Netherlands) and redshirt freshman Carson Jones (Macon, Ga.) clinched the match.
“I’m very proud of Carson,” said Head Coach Nick Zieziula. “He has shown resistance for the last year and a half and today he did it again. This is definitely something we can learn from as a team.”
Jones overcame a 3-0 deficit as well as a tiebreaker in the second set to beat Mercer’s Austin Emmet 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-0, clinching the match for the Eagles after more than four hours of overall competition. The Macon native, who sat out the 2012 season due to compliance regulations and battled a shoulder injury in the fall, made his first collegiate start in front of a hometown crowd at the number six position.
With the Eagles behind 3-2, Verdam came back from a 4-1 deficit in the third set at the number one spot to clinch his own match 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
Sophomore Albert Codina Sala (Manresa, Spain) started things off for the Eagles with a quick match at number three against Mercer’s Joao Pagan, winning both sets 6-1.
Sophomore Andrew Dromsky (Martinez, Ga.) and junior Oliver Webb (London, England) came out on top in a close doubles match at the number one spot, winning the tiebreaker 7-5 en route of beating Mercer’s Victor Dias and Pagan with a final score of 9-8. At number two, the duo existing of senior Alex Doherty (Marietta, Ga.), who appeared in his first match for the Eagles after transferring from Ball State last year, and Jones beat Mercer’s Emmett and Vincent DeLise 8-2, making it possible for Dromsky and Webb to take home the doubles point.
“Mercer played one great game. They battled hard and made it extremely tough on us and I am glad for us to come out on top,” said Zieziula.
The Eagles will be back on the court next weekend as they travel to Atlanta to take on Georgia State and Kennesaw St. in back to back matches on Saturday, Feb. 9 and Sunday, Feb. 10.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its new "Eagles GATA" mobile app for Android and iOS.
Singles
1. Mattijs Verdam (GSU) def. Arnav Mohanty (MU), 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
2. Anderson Scarpa (MU) def. Andrew Dromsky (GSU), 6-4, 7-6 (12-10)
3. Albert Codina Sala (GSU) def. Joao Pagan (MU), 6-1, 6-1
4. Vincent DeLise (MU) def. Oliver Webb (GSU), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
5. Arsav Mohanty (MU) def. Alex Doherty (GSU), 6-2, 6-1
6. Carson Jones (GSU) def. Austin Emmett (MU), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-0
Order of finish: 3, 5, 2, 4, 1, 6
Doubles
1. Andrew Dromsky/Oliver Webb (GSU) def. Victor Dias/Joao Pagan (MU), 9-8 (7-5)
2. Alex Doherty/Carson Jones (GSU) def. Austin Emmett/Vincent DeLise (MU), 8-2
3. Arnav Mohanty/Arsav Mohanty (MU) def. Rafael Racy/Matthijs Verdam (GSU), 8-2
Order of finish: 2, 3, 1
