March 19, 2009

Final Stats

WILMINGTON, N.C. - Junior Renzo Airaldi won his 100th career match at USC Upstate as he helped lead the men's tennis team to a convincing doubles point before helping the team to a 5-2 win over No. 71 UNC Wilmington to wrap up Upstate's participation at the Battle of the Beach on Thursday. The Spartans, who won their first game in the Division I era against the Seahawks, improved their winning streak to 13 matches by winning three three-set matches.

Upstate (15-2 overall) set the tone in doubles play, winning all three matches in doubles play, as junior Jack Roux and senior Leandro Osorio posted an 8-2 win over Illia Ziamtsou and Anton Nikolov at No. 2 and freshmen Edgar Rodriguez and Ramiro Blanco added an 8-2 win over Alex Wetherell and Kinshuk Sharma at No. 3 to secure the doubles point. Airaldi and junior Javier Tori added an 8-3 win over Gustavo Bertei and Michael Pereira at No. 1 to wrap up the point for Airaldi's 100th career win.

In singles play, the Spartans and Seahawks (9-5 overall) settled in for a battle as five matches went the three-set distance. Airaldi was the lone Spartan to secure a two-set victory, as he notched a 6-4, 7-6 (5) win at No. 2 singles for his 101st career win. He has 43 singles wins and 58 doubles wins in his career and he joins current teammates Osorio and Tori in the 100-win club.

The Seahawks closed within a point at 2-1 with a three-set win at No. 1 singles, but the Spartans wrapped up the match with wins at No. 6 and No. 5 singles. Osorio notched a dramatic 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4) win over Nikolov at No. 6 and Blanco won his 15th straight match by taking a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Wetherell at No. 5. The Seahawks took the match at No. 3 singles in come-from-behind fashion, but Roux moved into a three-way tie for fourth in school history with 51 career singles wins by taking a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Ziamtsou at No. 4 singles.

The win was Upstate's 15th, marking the third straight year and the ninth time in school history that Upstate reached the plateau. The three-year run of 15-win seasons is a school record.

Upstate will get back on the court on Saturday when they make the short trip from Wilmington to Buies Creek, N.C., to play Atlantic Sun Conference foe Campbell, who was predicted to finish third and ahead of the Spartans in the A-Sun Preseason Coaches' Poll, at 1 p.m.