Clemson, S.C. – South Carolina men’s tennis defeated in-state rival Clemson on Friday night 7-0 on the Tigers’ home courts. The Gamecocks were relentless, dominating all doubles and singles matches.
The Gamecocks started hot in doubles with Casey Hoole and Raphael Lambling earning the first win 6-2. The doubles point was clinched by Jake Beasley and James Story who won their match 6-1
Play moved to singles where the Gamecocks were rolling, taking first sets on all six courts. Hoole was the first to wrap up his match. The No. 56 sophomore breezed through Clemson’s Trey Stinchcomb, winning 6-1, 6-3.
Lambling was the next Gamecock to clear his court, winning his match 6-3, 6-1 over the Tigers’ No. 3 player Spencer Whitaker to put South Carolina up 3-0.
The match was clinched on Court 1 by Toby Samuel. The No. 15 ranked Gamecock took down No. 118 Ryuhei Azuma in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. Samuel has now won all five of his dual singles matches from the top spot in the lineup with two of them coming over ranked opponents.
Just seconds later Connor Thomson completed his match, defeating Jorge Plans Gonzalez 6-2, 6-4. The win marks Thomson’s tenth straight singles win.
One of the more contested match of the night was between Story and Clemson’s Matt Pitts. The Tiger appeared to have the upper-hand to start after breaking Story on his first service game, but the Gamecock battled back to force the set to a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker initially appeared even, but Story broke away after two all and was able to hold out to win the tiebreak 7-4. Story was then able to earn an early break in his final set to win it 6-4 for the victory
The last match on was between Beasley and Nini Dica. Beasley was relentless in the first set, taking it 6-1, but Dica fought back to take the second set 7-5. The final set was played as a ten-point tiebreak that Beasley ran away with, winning it 10-5 to win his match and complete the sweep for South Carolina.
This win is South Carolina’s eighth consecutive win over Clemson and second consecutive 7-0 sweep of the Tigers. The Gamecocks last shutout of Clemson at Clemson was a 4-0 win in 2016. It is South Carolina’s first 7-0 shutout of the Tigers on their home courts since 1998.
The Gamecocks will continue the non-conference portion of their schedule on the road, traveling to Georgia Tech on Feb. 10, and Wake Forest on Feb. 12.
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