Upstate Returns Home for Two Straight Matches against Stetson, Georgia Southern
3/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate men's tennis team is set to play two home matches over a three-day stretch this week as the Spartans host the Stetson Hatters in A-Sun play on Thursday before stepping out of conference on Saturday to face the Georgia Southern Eagles from the USC Upstate Tennis Complex.
Upstate will take on Stetson Thursday at 2 p.m. before entertaining Georgia Southern at 12 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
The Spartans have won two matches in a row after defeating UNC Asheville 4-3 on Mar. 19. Upstate earned a pair of 6-4 victories to win the doubles point after taking the number one and three matches. The Spartans then won three matches in singles play to pick up the victory after Tomas Venere captured a 7-5, 6-2 straight set victory at the number six position.
Jamie Yates leads Upstate this season with an 8-3 singles mark and is 4-2 when playing at the number three position. The Spartans have two doubles combinations that have posted three wins each this year beginning with Ignacio Garrido and Lenhard Haupt who are 3-3 playing at number two. The number one doubles pairing of Ramon Simonetti and Ankush Arora are 3-3 overall.
Stetson currently sits at 7-8 overall and is opening its conference season on Thursday. The Hatters, led by head coach Christophe Noblet, have won three of their last four matches over Illinois State, Air Force and Lafayette. Loic Blanco leads Stetson in singles competition with a 7-5 record playing at the number one position. In doubles play, Simon Julin and Coilin MacNamara are 7-4 overall including a 5-3 mark at the number two spot.
Georgia Southern heads into the weekend match with an 11-5 record on the season and are winners of its last two contests against Kennesaw State and UNC Asheville. The Eagles are led by head coach Sander Koning. Georgia Southern is led in singles competition by Rise Lanne with an 18-7 record highlighted by an 11-1 mark at the number one position. Lanne has also teamed up with Christian Kerrigan to go 6-4 in doubles play as the duo has won three matches playing at number one.
Stetson leads the all-time series over the Spartans 5-4 and are tied 2-2 when playing in Spartanburg. Upstate holds a 4-1 advantage against the Eagles including a 1-0 mark at home.
The Spartans begin a two-match road trip on Saturday, April 2 with a 2 p.m. contest at Florida Gulf Coast.
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