Queens Box Score (.pdf)
Campbell Box Score (.pdf)
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate men's tennis team returned home on Saturday for a doubleheader and split two matches against the Queens Royals and Campbell Camels at the USC Upstate Tennis Complex. The Spartans defeated Queens 5-2 before falling to Campbell 4-3.
USC Upstate's record is now 2-7 on the season while Queens falls to 0-1 overall and Campbell improves to 3-3.
MATCH ONE – QUEENS 2, USC UPSTATE 5
The Royals jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after winning the doubles point following victories at No. 2 and No. 3. The Spartans earned a doubles win at No. 1 as Fernando Bernardes and Ignacio Garrido defeated Agustin Aran Martin and Sebastian Meum 6-3.
USC Upstate rallied back with five singles wins to secure the 5-2 victory. The Spartans received victories in the No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 matches. Bernardes tied the match at 1-1 with his No. 3 victory against Andor Vas in straight sets 6-0, 6-1. After Queens won the No. 6 match, Francisco Neto evened the score again at 2-2 with his three-set win at No. 2 over Julian Bosch 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
USC Upstate won the match courtesy of Ankush Arora and Luka Eble. Eble started with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 win at No. 5 against Meum and Arora secured the contest for the Spartans at No. 4 defeating Kasper Rolfsen 4-6, 7-5, 7-5.
Felix Ewers sealed the win at No. 1 topping Aran Martin in three sets 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3.
MATCH TWO – CAMPBELL 4, USC UPSTATE 3
The Camels collected a pair of 6-3 doubles wins at No. 1 and No. 3 to pick up the point and lead the Spartans 1-0 heading into singles play. Arora and Neto earned a 6-4 victory for USC Upstate in the No. 2 doubles match.
The teams split the six singles matches to give Campbell the 4-3 victory. USC Upstate captured the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 matches from Neto, Bernardes and Eble. After the Camels took the first two matches, the Spartans responded with the next two to trail 3-2 with two matches left. Bernardes captured his second match of the day defeating Gerard Sola 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 at No. 3 and Neto won in straight sets 7-6(5), 6-3 against Lorenz Schwab.
Campbell won the match at No. 1 and Eble closed out the contest at No. 5 with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 triumph against Fernando Clemente.
COACH'S QUOTE
"Even though we didn't quite have enough legs left in us to get over the hump against Campbell in the second match, we're very, very pleased with the way the whole team competed today. For us to beat a team as good as Queens having to really gut out some matches in third sets was a big-time effort from our guys. And then to turn around less than an hour later and very nearly pull out another one against a really good Campbell team makes you proud as a coach to see your guys out there just laying it all on the line. If we can continue to play with that kind of heart and fight, we're going to pick up a bunch of wins the rest of the year." – Tim McLane, assistant coach
UP NEXT
USC Upstate travels to Knoxville, Tenn. next Saturday, Feb. 24 for a doubleheader against the Tennessee Volunteers beginning at 11 a.m.
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