SC State Ends Season With 4-0 Defeat To # 3 Georgia Bulldogs

Junior Anton Protsenko

ATHENS, GA—The South Carolina State men's ended the season with a hard fought 4-0 decision, to the third-ranked Georgia Bulldogs in the opening round of the NCAA Tennis Championships Saturday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
      “Our team played their hearts out against a very good Georgia team,” said SC State head coach Hardeep Judge. “We knew it would be tough but I'm glad we came out fighting to the end.”
        Georgia rolled out early winning the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead. First at No.3, the team of Singh and Spencer defeated Tomas Bizon and Young-Kwang Lee, 8-1, then 41^st-ranked Pasha and Toboada clinched the point at No.2 with an 8-3 win over Dymtro Kovalevych and Anton Protsenko.
       "I'm pleased with the way we played," said Georgia head coach Manuel Diaz. "We need to play better a little bit better tomorrow to beat Florida State. They did a great job in coming back to win today. They are going to be a big challenge tomorrow. Overall we did a good job today, and I'm really pleased."
       Freshman Nathan Pasha extended the lead 2-0 in singles as a cruised past Artimey Nikitin at No.5, 6-0, 6-0, then No. 32 Doumbia downed Protsenko, 6-2,6-2, at No. 3. A the No.6 Pieters clinched the final win for the Bulldogs with a 6-2,6-2 victory over Jangeun-Lee.
      "South Carolina State won their conference, so we knew they were not a bad team," said Pieters, who picked up his team-leading 34^th singles win. "We had two weeks off after the SEC Tournament, so it was important for us to stay focused. I think we did that today."
      Matches at Nos. 1, 3 and 4 were suspended with Georgia leading in all three.
       Georgia and Florida State will square off in Sunday's second round for the second time in three years. South Carolina State ends its season at 20-3.
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