April 3, 2009

Final Stats

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Junior Javier Tori set the program record for career combined wins and tied the mark for career singles wins with wins in singles and doubles play on Friday afternoon at Florida Gulf Coast and the USC Upstate men's tennis team kept its hopes of an Atlantic Sun Conference championship alive by winning its school-record 19th straight match, 6-1.

Tori led the Spartans (21-2 overall, 8-0 A-Sun), posting a hard-fought 9-7 win with junior partner Renzo Airaldi over Thibaud Amie and Brenton Bacon at No. 1 doubles capping the point and his 6-2, 7-5 win at No. 3 singles over Ervin Garibovic capping the match. With 57 career singles wins, he tied the 12-year old school record by Jorge Ventura from 1994-97. His 120 career combined wins (57 singles wins and 63 doubles wins) passed the two-year-old school record of 119 set by Stefan Dumitrescu (2003-07).

Upstate, meanwhile, posted its historic 19th-straight win to pass the mark of 18 straight set by the 2003 Peach Belt Conference Championship team.

The Spartans swept doubles play, with junior Jack Roux and senior Leandro Osorio posting an 8-2 win over Rafael Costa and Edson Lima at No. 2 and freshmen Ramiro Blanco and Edgar Rodriguez adding an 8-5 win over Ervin Garibovic and Brad Henderson at No. 3 to clinch the point before Tori and Airaldi's win.

In singles play, Upstate quickly wrapped up the match, as Roux posted a 6-2, 6-1 win over Lima at No. 4, Blanco added his 22nd straight win with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Costa at No. 5 and Osorio added a 6-2, 6-2 win over Henderson at No. 5. Although Upstate fell in matches at No. 1 and No. 2 singles, Tori capped the match with his win at No. 3.

The Spartans will be back in action on Saturday when they face third-place Stetson in a critical A-Sun match against a team that has held a national ranking this season and currently stands at 16-5 overall and 7-1 in the A-Sun. The match is set to begin at 10 a.m. The Spartans have yet to face the only other undefeated team in the conference, ETSU, but will do so on Tuesday, April 7 at 2:30 p.m.