Men's Tennis Toughs Out Win against App State
3/23/2013 1:45:33 AM | Men's Tennis
BOONE, N.C. -- After dropping the doubles point, Georgia Southern Men's Tennis earned wins in all four singles matches needed to take home a 4-3 conference victory against Appalachian State on Friday afternoon at the indoor Deer Valley Racquet Club.
"I am very proud of the way we competed today," said Head Coach Nick Zieziula. "To come up with a win indoors at App is no easy task. We talk about mental toughness as the ability to maintain our habits under any circumstances and today we did that. We stayed focused on our goals and didn't let the speed of the courts, the crowd or a very tough App team distract us."
The first point of the match went to the Mountaineers (4-9, 2-2 SoCon) as they took all three doubles matches.
The Eagles (7-5, 3-1 SoCon) however came out strong in singles play as freshman Rayane Djouad picked up his team leading ninth singles win of the year, defeating Steve Karendal 6-4, 6-4 on court two. The rookie now owns a perfect 4-0 record in conference play, stands 9-1 on the year in dual competition, and is riding a winning streak of five matches.
Down 3-1 after losses at the number one and three positions the Eagles needed to win all three singles matches on court four through six and did just that. Sophomore Kyle Hoffman earned a 7-5, 7-5 victory against Matt Saltsgaver to cut the Eagle deficit to 3-2. Sophomore Albert Codina Sala and junior Marco Osorio finished simultaneously on court four and six to clinch the match for the visitors with the third and fourth point of the day.
Codina Sala defeated Andrew McKinnon 7-5, 7-5 on court four while Osorio earned his fourth straight victory on the year when he beat Jen-Willems Kleynhans 6-3, 6-4 at the number six position, both improving their conference records to a perfect 3-0.
The Eagles continue their North Carolina trip at Davidson on Saturday with a 1 p.m. match.
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 competition
1. Sebastien King (APP) def. Andrew Dromsky (GSU) 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (8-6)
2. Rayane Djouad (GSU) def. Steve Karendal (APP) 6-4, 6-4
3. Zach Bost (APP) def. Matthijs Verdam (GSU) 6-4, 7-5
4. A. Codina Sala (GSU) def. Andrew McKinnon (APP) 7-5, 7-5
5. Kyle Hoffman (GSU) def. Matt Saltsgaver (APP) 7-5, 7-5
6. Marco Osorio (GSU) def. Jen-Willem Kleynhans (APP) 6-3, 6-4
Order of finish: 2,3,1,5, - 4 and 6 finished simultaneously.
Doubles competition
1. Sebastien King/Zach Bost (APP) def. Marco Osorio/Rayane Djouad (GSU) 9-7
2. Jen-Willem Kleynhans/Andrew McKinnon (APP) def. Kyle Hoffman/Andrew Dromsky (GSU) 8-4
3. Steve Lake/Steve Karendal (APP) def. Matthijs Verdam/Alex Doherty (GSU) 9-8 (9-7)
Order of finish: 2,1,3
