Men's Tennis | 4/21/2017 11:34:00 PM

STATESBORO, Ga. – In a three and half hour thriller, the Georgia Southern men's tennis team punched their ticket to the Semifinal round with a victory over defending Sun Belt Conference Champions UT-Arlington. The Eagles will now turn their attention to a semifinals matchup against South Alabama tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. EST. This match will be broadcasted on ESPN3, live from City Park / Pepsi Tennis Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

"It was a great battle from both sides," Head coach Sander Koning said. "UTA is a very good team. It was very even like it was in the regular season and now some of the critical points went our way. We will enjoy this and get ready for South Alabama."

During doubles play the Eagles evened the scoring at one match a piece following a win on court two by Diego Finkelstein and Eddie Landin. The Mavericks would defeat the doubles team of Christian Kerrigan and Dani Casablancas 7-5 to open the scoring at 1-0.

The Eagles had been in this situation, less than a month ago against UTA, but this time the Blue and White had different plans. Eddie Landin tied the match with a victory in straight sets over Mario Muniesa of UTA, while senior Dani Casablancas giving the Eagles a quick 2-1 lead minutes after Eddie finished his match. Diego Finkelstein would extend the Eagles lead to 3-1, following a 7-5, 6-3 victory on court five.

UTA threatened taking a strangle hold on courts four and five to level the match at 3 all. Artemie Amari dropped his first set on court six 4-6. In a second set tiebreaker, Amari prevailed leveling the match at one set a piece. Amari took that momentum and ran with it, surrendering only one game in the third set, defeating his opponent 6-1.

"I'd like to thank my teammates," said junior Artemie Amari. "I'm only one of nine guys and I couldn't do it without them there. That being said the feeling of winning the match for them and our coaches is a felling that can't be put into words. I'm glad I had the opportunity to do that for them, and now it's on to the next one tomorrow. Hail Southern!"

SINGLES RESULTS

Gonzalez def. Amari 3-6, 6-2, 7-6
Landin def. Muniesa 6-1, 6-3
Nuez def. Di Aloy 7-5, 6-3
Casablancas def. Armengol 6-1, 6-3
Finkelstein def. Del Rio 7-5, 6-3
Amari def. Colvee 4-6, 7-6, 6-1

DOUBLES RESULTS

Gonzalez/Del Rio def. Kerrigan/Casablancas 7-5
Finkelstein/Landin def. Muniesa/Sanz 6-2
Armengol/Nuez def. Amari/Di Aloy 6-2

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