The No. 16 South Carolina Men’s Tennis lost 1-4 at home to the No. 3 Tennessee Volunteers on Friday.
Coming into the match, Tennessee was ranked second in the SEC with a record of 14-1, while South Carolina had a 7-3 record and was tied for third with Texas A&M.
The match started off on a bad note for the Gamecocks as South Carolina fell behind after losing the doubles point.
Sophomore Daniel Rodrigues and freshman Connor Thomson lost at the number one doubles spot with a score of 1-6, and sophomore Jake Beasley and freshman Toby Samuel lost their match to the Vols 2-6.
The bright spot for South Carolina was freshman Phillip Jordan and sophomore Raphael Lambling winning 5-2 in the number two doubles match, making it a 1-2 loss at the doubles spot rather than a full sweep.
Gamecocks held leads in three out of the six singles matches once singles play began. Then, South Carolina proceeded to lose four of the second sets leading to three third set tie breaks to decide the match, which came down to the very end.
Rodrigues lost his match at the one seed with a score of 2-6, 3-6 and at the two seed, Lambling lost his match in the third set with a final score of 4-6, 6-3, 3-6.
At the third seed, Thomson won his match 6-2, 7-6 with the tiebreak score being 7-0. At the fourth seed match, Samuel did not finish his match 7-5, 6-2, 4-4, then with the fifth seed match, Beasley lost in straight sets 5-7, 1-6.
Finishing out the lineup, Jordan secured a third-set win with the final being 6-1, 4-6, 5-2.
The final score for the team was 1-4 against the Vols.
“Tough one for the guys today. Tennessee played tough at every spot, so credit goes to them,” head coach Josh Goffi said after the match.