Box Score (PDF)

Spartanburg, S.C. – In a contest that went down to the third set of the final match, the USC Upstate men's tennis team dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 decision to Florida Gulf Coast Saturday afternoon in Atlantic Sun action from the USC Upstate Tennis Complex.

Florida Gulf Coast captured the first doubles match of the day when Jordi Vives and Dean Tsamas defeated Matthias Kidler and Gonzalo Blanco 8-5 from the No. 1 position. The Upstate duo of Rajanvir Dharni and Pedro Carvalho kept the Spartans alive with an 8-7 victory over Lucas Vaz and Chris Perrigan at No. 3. The Eagles, however, would ultimately win the point and take a 1-0 lead following an 8-7 win by Tianyu Bao and Lance Lvovsky over Yvon Haessig and Ramon Simonetti at No. 2.

Vives put the Eagles ahead 2-0 when he turned in a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Simonetti and the No. 1 singles position. Kidler cut the lead in half after he bested Bao 6-3, 6-0 at No. 2, but Tsamas put Florida Gulf Coast ahead 3-1 with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Blanco at the No. 3 position.

Haessig pulled Upstate within 3-2 after downing Lvovsky 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 at No. 5, and Jamie Yates knotted the score 3-3 following his 6-2, 7-6 victory over Vaz at No. 4. In the deciding match, Gabriel Echeverry won the first set 6-4, but Dharni answered by taking the second set 6-3 to set up a winner-take-all scenario in the final set. In a closely contested final set, Echeverry came out on top 7-5 and sealed the victory for the Eagles.

Upstate returns to the court March 21 when the Spartans travel to Nashville, Tenn., to take on Lipscomb at 9 a.m.

Follow Upstate men's tennis all season long on your mobile device, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.