Sunday, 03/07/2010

COLUMBIA, S.C. - No. 41 South Carolina suffered a 5-2 defeat at the hands of No. 73 LSU at W.T. "Dub" Robinson Stadium Friday afternoon. The Gamecocks (6-3, 0-1 SEC) won the doubles point, but put together just one singles win against the Tigers (3-5, 1-0 SEC). Senior Pedro Campos
accounted for part of both South Carolina's points with wins in the No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles matches.

The Gamecocks got off to a good start as their reformulated doubles lineup sweeping all three matches for a 1-0 South Carolina lead. Seniors Diego Cubas and Campos teamed up in the No. 1 position and quickly stormed past Roger Anderson and Neal Skupski 8-2. Senior Ivan Cressoni and freshman Alexander Kostanov needed just a few more games before dismissing LSU's Julien Gauthier and Mark Bowtell 8-5 in the No. 3 spot. Junior Johannes Pulsfort and Ivan Machado staged a late break of serve to complete the sweep with an 8-6 decision in the No. 2 match.

LSU rallied back quickly with wins in the first three singles matches to finish. Gauthier handed Kostanov a 6-1, 6-3 loss in the No. 3 spot just ahead of Stefan Szacinski's 6-1, 6-4 win over Machado in the No. 4 match. Bowtell squeaked by Pulsfort 6-1, 7-6 in the No. 5 position to give the Tigers a
3-1 lead.

Meanwhile, all three of the remaining matches - Nos. 1, 2 and 6 - went into a third set. In the No. 6 contest, Cressoni rallied back from a 6-3 loss in the first set to claim the second 6-4. LSU's Olivier Borsos took an early break in the third to lead 4-2, while in the Nos. 1 and 2 matches it was the
Tigers that pushed back with second-set wins after the Gamecocks in those positions, Cubas and Campos, respectively, had won the first. Borsos went on to win the No. 6 match with a 6-3 victory in the third set, delivering the decisive fourth point for the Tigers.

Campos closed out his seventh singles victory of the season with a 6-1 third set over Sebastian Carlsson. Skupski, the nation's No. 44 player, finished his comeback over the 65th-ranked Cubas with a 6-4 win in his third set.

South Carolina stays on the road this weekend for a 1 p.m. contest against No. 52 Arkansas on Sunday.


Results
Doubles (Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2)                                            Singles (Order of Finish: 3, 4, 5, 6, 2, 1)
1.   Diego Cubas/Pedro Campos (SC) def. Roger Anderson/Neal               1.   (44) Neal Skupski (LSU) def. (89) Diego Cubas (SC) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
Skupski (LSU) 8-2                                                     2.   Pedro Campos (SC) def. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) 6-4, 2-6, 6-1
2.   Ivan Machado/Johannes Pulsfort (SC) def. Sebastian Carlsson/Stefan   3.   Julien Gauthier (LSU) def. Alexander Kostanov (SC) 6-1, 6-3
Szacinski (LSU) 8-6                                                   4.   Stefan Szacinski (LSU) def. Ivan Machado (SC) 6-1, 6-4
3.   Ivan Cressoni/Alexander Kostanov (SC) def. Julien Gauthier/Mark      5.   Mark Bowtell (LSU) def. Johannes Pulsfort (SC) 6-1, 7-6
Bowtell (LSU) 8-5                                                     6.   Olivier Borsos (LSU) def. Ivan Cressoni (SC) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3

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