STATESBORO - The Georgia Southern men's tennis team battled all afternoon, and in the end, emerged victorious Thursday at Wallis Tennis Center with a 5-2 win over the College of Charleston.
The afternoon began with the doubles match, where Tao Castillo and Alex Suk made quick work of their opponents, finishing their match with a 6-0 decision. Pol del Castillo and Laurent Julia Calac finished shortly after them, clinching the doubles point with a 6-2 score. Alexandros Roumpis and Valentin Dun fought hard, but came up just short in their match, 3-6.
The singles matches began shortly after the doubles ended with Dimitris Paliouras giving another point to the Eagles with a quick two sets victory (6-3, 6-1), which gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead. Jacob Mitchell saw his first singles match of the season after recovering from two major surgeries but fell in two sets (4-6, 1-6). On court two, Alexandros Roumpis won his first set (6-2) and emerged victorious (7-6) in a tough second set to earn the win. Laurent Julia Calac pushed his match to three sets, but fell short in the end (3-6, 6-3, 1-6). With the Eagles leading the dual match 3-2, two singles matches were still in action. Valentin Dun clinched the match for the Eagles when he finished his match in two sets, with the second set being highly contested. Dun eventually took the match, 6-3, 7-6. Pol del Castillo was the last player to finish, wrapping things up with a nail-biter third set tie breaker. Del Castillo won the final point (6-7, 6-2, 7-6) to give the Eagles a 5-2 match victory.
The Eagles will now travel to Conway, South Carolina, to face UNCG on Saturday, and match up with conference foe Coastal Carolina on Sunday. Both matches are slated to begin at noon on their respective days.
QUOTE FROM COACH BAYON: "Today was another great college tennis match played at the Willis Tennis Center, with two teams competing until the end. I'm proud of the fighting spirit we demonstrated as well as our level of resiliency. We were able to navigate the ups and downs of the match much better than last week I thought. It was a great match to prepare the team for a a challenging weekend on the road."
RESULTS
Doubles
Z. Larke/R. Krick (CofC) def. A. Roumpis/V. Dun (GS) 6-3
T. Castillo/A. Suk (GS) def. B. Husum/N. Borges (CofC) 6-0
P. del Castillo/L. Julia Calac (GS) def. B. Dorsey/A. Limon (CofC) 6-2
Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1
Singles
P. del Castillo (GS) def. Z. Larke (CofC) 6-7, 6-2, 7-6
A. Roumpis (GS) def. R. Krick (CofC) 6-2, 7-6
V. Dun (GS) def. N. Borges (CofC) 6-3, 7-6
D. Paliouras (GS) def. M. Gaedechens (CofC) 6-3, 6-1
J. Wang (CofC) def. L. Julia Calac (GS) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1
A. Limon (CofC) def. J. Mitchell (GS) 6-4, 6-1
Order of Finish: 4, 6, 2, 5, 3, 1
