Box Score (PDF)

Jacksonville, Fla. – The No. 5 seed USC Upstate men's tennis team nearly erased a 3-1 deficit, but ultimately saw its two-match winning streak snapped following a 4-2 setback to fourth-seeded Stetson Thursday morning in the opening round of the Atlantic Sun Tournament from the UNF Tennis Complex.

The Stetson duo of Simon Julin and Graham Ball started the match with an 8-0 doubles victory at the No. 3 position to give the Hatters the early edge for winning the point. Upstate, however, answered by taking the second match when Matthias Kidler and Gonzalo Blanco turned in an 8-6 win over Chester Espie and Laurynas Antropikas at No. 1. In the deciding match, Nathan Debut and Hans Adrian Riseng clinched the point for Stetson with an 8-7 victory over Ramon Simonetti and Yvon Haessig at No. 2.

Simonetti won the first singles match of the day, posting a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Antropikas at No. 2 to tie the score 1-1. Espie earned a 6-4, 6-2 win over Haessig at the No. 6 position to give the Hatters a 2-1 lead before Cahit Kapukiran put Stetson ahead 3-1 following a 6-3, 6-1 win over Blanco at No. 3.

Dharni kept Upstate alive with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Ball at No. 5 to pull the Spartans within 3-2, and Kidler forced a tiebreaker match with Debut at No. 1 after the two had split the first two matches. After a back-and-forth affair for the first few points in the tiebreaker match, Debut managed to pull away late for a 6-3 win to clinch the match for the Hatters.

As the match between Debut and Kidler went final, Spartan sophomore Jamie Yates had a 7-6, 5-2 lead over Julin at No. 4.

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