Men’s tennis improves to 2-0 with wins over Citadel, Furman in first weekend of season
A new tennis season bounced into Columbia Sunday as the South Carolina men’s tennis team battled in-state opponents Furman and The Citadel.
The Gamecocks handily won their first game against Furman, winning the doubles round and dominating singles, claiming every match and giving the Gamecocks the 7-0 team victory.
Freshmen Andrew Schafer and Sam Swank were both getting their first collegiate experience on the hard-court Sunday. Schafer won his singles match in three sets (6-4, 3-6, 6-3) while Swank took his match in straight sets, winning 6-5 and 6-1.
“Our two freshmen got on the court for the first time in a real match situation. There were some ups and downs throughout their matches,” coach Josh Goffi said. “I think the veterans and returners played unbelievable and very disciplined today.”
The dominance continued against The Citadel, with the Gamecocks winning 7-0 as well. They swept the doubles round and in singles, allowing the Bulldogs to only win 11 games in their sets.
With such a convincing result, it is hard to believe that the team was without All-SEC selection junior Thiago Pinheiro and junior Kyle Koch for singles play. The two had been battling injuries in the fall and were held out by the coaching staff as a precaution.
With dominating performances by junior Ben Barnette, who won in straight sets and didn’t drop a game (6-0, 6-0) and junior All-SEC selection Andrew Adams (6-1, 6-1), the men’s tennis team jumped off to a quick 3-0 team lead.
“We wanted to build off the first and cut out some of the sloppiness. I think we did that and it was pretty routine all the way around,” Goffi said. “Very quick matches and guys didn’t play loose when they were ahead and that is one of the big things that will allow us to move forward.”
Schafer clinched the team victory, winning his singles match in straight sets (6-1, 6-0). Senior Tsvetan Mihov also won both his doubles and singles matches against The Citadel.
The All-American jumped out to a quick lead in both the first and second set and ended up closing out both sets strongly, 6-1 and 6-2.
“It’s tough in the beginning when you have a big lead,” Mihov said. “But I have to be focused and take some time to figure out my best game.”
The Gamecocks won each of the singles matches and the doubles round. No Gamecock dropped a set in the singles matches, and they jumped to quick leads.
“They went out and executed great and the scores show that. When they got ahead in games they didn’t let it go, they were very efficient,” Goffi said. “When you’re playing non-SEC caliber teams, you can still get away with some of the sloppiness but our goal is to be as efficient as possible. I’m proud of our guys, they stayed on point today.”
The Gamecocks start out the season undefeated at 2-0 and will travel to Mississippi State next weekend to face the Bulldogs as well as Memphis and Harvard.
The team looks to use the momentum gained by the dominance this weekend to win next weekend.
“We accomplished what we wanted to accomplish. We wanted to be 2-0 going into the weekend and one of our very large goals is getting through the next qualifying weekend,” Goffi said. “Our goal is to make the Sweet 16 and hopefully we can carry the momentum.”