Agate

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Elon men’s tennis team dropped a 7-0 decision to a talented South Carolina team on Friday morning at the USC Indoor Facility as the Phoenix opened the 2012 dual season. The Gamecocks (3-0) have beaten all three of their opponents this year in shutout fashion.

The day began with doubles action and Elon was forced to play without its lone senior, Eric Turner, who was sidelined due to illness. Turner and sophomore Cameron Silverman competed as Elon’s top doubles pair this fall, earning a ranking of fourth in the Carolina Region. Silverman also suffered flu-like symptoms, but managed to play out the match.

Elon’s doubles pairs were made up entirely of freshmen and sophomores with the number one and three tandems playing together for the first time. Rookies Dan Sablik and Christopher Geaslen suffered an 8-1 defeat to Chip Cox and Andrew Adams on court three before the Gamecock’s Ivan Machado and Carl Eguez secured the doubles point with an 8-3 victory over freshman Stefan Fortmann and sophomore Andrew Prince at number two. On the first court, Silverman and rookie Jordan Kaufman fell 8-3 to Nick Jones and Kyle Koch.

Cox and Equez were quick to put the Gamecocks ahead, 3-0, with straight set wins over Kaufmann and Carlos Arboleda at number three and four, respectively. On court two, Fortmann fell in a tiebreak in the first set to Adams after battling back from a 5-1 deficit. Adams would go on to take the match, 7-6 (7), 6-2, clinching the Gamecock victory.

Despite struggling with illness, Silverman managed to force a third set against Machado in the top singles match. Machado opened with a 6-4 win before Silverman forced a deciding set with a 7-5 victory. Machado came up with an early break and eventually earned the 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 win.

South Carolina’s Koch and Ben Barnette completed the South Carolina shutout with wins in straight sets over Prince and Geaslen in the final two matches of the day.

Elon will be back in action tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. when the Phoenix challenges No. 69 Georgia State in a neutral site match in Columbia, S.C.