Upstate Heads to Florida Gulf Coast Saturday for Conference Showdown
4/1/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate men's tennis team hits the road for the first of two matches Saturday afternoon as the Spartans travel to Fort Myers, Fla. to face the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles at 2 p.m. from the FGCU Tennis Complex.
Upstate (5-11, 1-1) is back in action for the first time since Mar. 26 when it dropped a 6-1 decision at home to Georgia Southern. In their last conference match, the Spartans were edged by Stetson 4-3 in Spartanburg on Mar. 24. Ankush Arora recorded a singles victory in the non-conference match with Georgia Southern, and went 2-0 during the week after winning his number two match versus Stetson. Jamie Yates and Ignacio Garrido also collected singles wins against Stetson.
Yates leads Upstate this season with a 9-4 singles mark and is 5-3 when playing at the number three position. The Spartans have two doubles combinations that have posted three wins each this year beginning with Garrido and Lenhard Haupt who are 3-3 playing at number two. The number one doubles pairing of Arora and Ramon Simonetti are 3-3 overall.
Florida Gulf Coast (13-5, 3-0) heads into the weekend winners of its last four matches including three in conference play. The Eagles are under the direction of fifth-year head coach CJ Weber. Andres Alfonzo leads FGCU this season in singles play with a 17-13 overall record and is 12-5 in dual matches playing at the number one position. In doubles play, Ricky Ventura and Lucas Vaz have combined for seven wins with four coming at the number one spot.
Upstate leads the all-time series over Florida Gulf Coast 5-4 in a series dating back to the 2008 season. The Spartans won the first five meetings in the series with FGCU from 2008-12.
Upstate heads to Lipscomb on Thursday, Apr. 7 for a 2 p.m. match with the Bisons.
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