Columbia, S.C. – The Furman men's tennis team wrapped up a season-long seven-match road trip on Sunday with a 4-0 defeat to the 16
th-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks at the Carolina Tennis Center.
Furman falls to 7-10 overall while South Carolina improves to 10-9 on the season.
The Gamecocks won at both No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to claim the opening point over the Paladins. Playing at No. 3, the tandem of Sean Daryabeigi and Jelani Sarr topped
Cole Burnam and
Alex Han, 6-1. The No. 2 combination of Lucas da Silva and James Story won 6-3 over
Ben Cahill and
Emil Westling to secure the point.
In the No. 1 doubles match,
Thomas Kennedy and
Elijah Poritzky were trailing the 19
th-ranked team of Casey Hoole and Toby Samuel, 5-4, when the contest went unfinished after South Carolina clinched the point.
The Gamecocks followed in singles play winning the three completed matches to collect the 4-0 victory. Playing at No. 5, da Silva started with a 6-0, 6-1 win over
Walker Allen, and Daryabeigi followed at No. 3 defeating Westling, 6-1, 6-2. Sarr clinched the match for South Carolina with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph at No. 4 over
John Rado.
A total of three singles matches went unfinished with Poritzky at No. 1, Kennedy at No. 2, and Burnam at No. 6. Poritzky took the opening set from Story in a tiebreaker, 7-6(1), and was trailing in the second, 4-3. Kennedy dropped the first set to Hoole, ranked 105
th nationally, 6-2, before rallying back to tie the second, 6-6, and was even at 2-2 in the tiebreaker. Burnam fell in the opening set to Carter Morgan, 6-2, and was leading in the second, 5-4.
The Paladins now return home to Mickel Tennis Center for the first time in over a month, hosting Emmanuel and Chattanooga in a doubleheader on Saturday, March 30. Furman entertains Emmanuel at 10 a.m. before stepping back into Southern Conference play at 2 p.m. versus Chattanooga.
Fans can follow the action on www.furmanpaladins.com via live stats and live streaming. Updates will be posted on the Furman men's tennis Twitter page (@FurmanMTennis).
