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Auburn Downs South Carolina, 4-2 in SEC Tournament
STARKVILLE, Miss. –
Auburn’s 17th-ranked men’s tennis team advanced to the SEC Tournament
quarterfinals with a 4-2 win over No. 39 South Carolina on Thursday
morning at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.
With the win, the
seventh-seeded Tigers (17-8) will face second-seeded Georgia in the
tournament quarterfinals on Friday. Auburn has also now surpassed its
win total from the 2011 season with its 17th victory of the year, and
the Tigers now have their most single-season wins since winning 20
matches in the 2002 season. South Carolina fell to 15-11 overall.
“I
think we’re continuing to improve in doubles,” Auburn head coach Eric
Shore said. “I thought we played well in all three spots today in
doubles. And then in singles, we knew South Carolina was going to fight
back, and they did. It was very tough at the end, it was close and our
guys found a way to get four points. Gotta give Dan (Cochrane) a lot of
credit, he’s been battling hard. He played well today. We’ve been
telling him that if he keeps fighting like he has, good things were
going to happen, and they did.”
The Tigers got a measure of
revenge by winning the doubles point in today’s match; the Gamecocks
had taken an early lead in the team’s earlier match in Columbia before
Auburn rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a narrow victory. The Auburn
team of Daniel Cochrane and Lukas Ollert struck first with an 8-4 win
over Carl Eguez and Kyle Koch at the No. 3 doubles position. Just a few
minutes later, the 14th-ranked pair of Alex Stamchev and Andreas Mies
downed No. 24 Chip Cox and Nick Jones, 8-5, on court one to clinch the
point and give Auburn a 1-0 lead.
Dennis Lengsfeld and Lucas
Lopasso were one game away from a win as well, holding a 7-3 lead on
Ivan Machado and Thiago Pinheiro when play was halted.
Auburn
increased its lead to 2-0 when Lopasso rallied from down an early break
to roll to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Cox at the No. 5 singles spot. But
South Carolina would cut into the deficit when Pinheiro took down
Lengsfeld, 6-4, 6-0, on court four.
A win from Cochrane over
Jones on court three, 6-4, 6-1, would put the Tigers just one point
away from clinching the match. But again, South Carolina would come up
with a big win as Andrew Adams earned a 6-4, 6-3 win over 66th-ranked
Stamchev, 6-4, 6-3, on court two.
It would come down to a pair
of matches in the third set after Mies had dropped the second set of
his match and Ollert had rallied to win set two at the No. 6 position.
And it would be 18th-ranked Mies emerging victorious on court one,
outlasting No. 116 Machado, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, to clinch the win for Auburn.
Ollert was tied with Kyle Koch 4-4 in the third set when play was suspended.
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