The No. 43 men’s tennis team hosted No. 36 South Carolina on Sunday at the Bill Moore Tennis Center. The match against South Carolina was the first real test for the Jackets this season, and they proved to be up for the challenge, winning the contest 6-1.
The lower-ranked Jackets used their momentum from their previous four matches to take down the Gamecocks and improve to 5-0 on the spring season. The Gamecocks fell to 1-1 with the loss.
Tech’s doubles teams gained the Jackets an early point. The Jackets got one win from the team of juniors Eliot Potvin and Dean O’Brien, who won their match 8-3, and another from the team of junior Miguel Muguruza and freshman Juan Spir, 8-6.
Tech’s other doubles team, juniors Guillermo Gomez and Ryan Smith, lost a very close match to South Carolina’s Diego Cubas and Ivan Machado, the No. 27 doubles pair in the nation. Cubas and Machado won 9-8.
Gomez and Cubas continued their duel on the singles court, but this time the fourth-ranked Gomez earned a point for the Jackets, winning 7-6, 2-6, 6-4.
Playing in Tech’s number two slot, Potvin continued the string of tight matches, but he came out on top as well and defeated his opponent 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
O’Brien continued his strong play this season by defeating Johannes Pulsfort 6-1, 6-3 to give Tech a commanding 4-0 lead and clinch the victory for the Jackets.
South Carolina got their first and only point when Machado defeated Muguruza 7-5, 6-4.
Tech’s fifth and sixth slot players finished off the Gamecocks to seal Tech’s win. Sophomore Dusan Miljevic handily beat Alexander Kostanov 6-2, 6-4, and freshman Magin Ortiga took care of Ivan Cressoni 6-2, 6-1.
Tech looks to keep their five-game winning streak alive this weekend in Gainesville, Fla. as part of ITA Kick-Off Weekend. The Jackets are the No. 2 seed in the Florida regional and will take on Penn State on Saturday. If they win, they will face the winner of Florida versus Furman on Sunday.
If Tech were to win both matches, they would receive a spot in the Championship next month.