March 5, 2009

Final Stats

ROCK HILL, S.C. - Senior Leandro Osorio posted a dramatic three-set win at No. 6 singles to help the USC Upstate men's tennis team to a narrow 4-3 win over Big South Conference power Winthrop on Thursday afternoon at the Winthrop Memorial Courts.

With the score tied at three, Osorio won his third set over Andrea Merg, 6-2, to clinch the match after they split the first two sets, with Osorio posting a 6-0 first set win before falling in the second set, 7-6 (5).

Upstate took a 1-0 lead by winning the doubles point. Freshman Edgar Rodriguez and junior Jack Roux posted an 8-3 win at No. 3 doubles over Sergey Belov and Luka Stanic to start the match for the Spartans (9-2 overall). Juniors Javier Tori and Renzo Airaldi added an 8-5 win over the Winthrop pair of Daniel Daudt and Diego Toledo at No. 1 doubles to clinch the point before Upstate fell in the No. 2 doubles match.

Roux gave Upstate a 2-0 lead with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Toledo at No. 4 singles, giving the 5-6 junior his 45th career singles win, which is ninth in school history. Winthrop (3-3 overall) tied the match with wins at No. 2 and No. 1 singles before freshman Ramiro Blanco improved his record to 9-0 with a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win at No. 5 singles over Arthur Taskahashi. Winthrop earned a three-set win to tie the match at three, as Tori fell to Naday Ruppin, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 at No. 3 singles, setting up Osorio's match-clinching victory.

The Spartans return to the USC Upstate Tennis Complex on Friday when they host Belmont in their Atlantic Sun Conference season opener at 2 p.m. in a doubleheader with the women's team, who will start their defense of their 2008 regular season A-Sun championship against the Bruins.