No. 29 Men's Tennis Drops Road Match to No. 25 South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The No. 29 Arkansas men’s tennis team (14-6, 3-3) dropped its road match to No. 25 South Carolina (11-4, 5-1), falling 4-0 Thursday afternoon at Carolina Tennis Center.

The Gamecocks took the lead after grabbing the doubles point with wins on the top two courts. Karahan/Sarr struck first for South Carolina with a 6-2 victory over Božo Barun and Benni Emesz at the No. 2 position. No. 26 da Silva/Thomson held off a late comeback attempt from Connor Smillie and Jakub Vrba to clinch the doubles point for the Gamecocks after a 6-4 win in the top spot. Brendan Boland and Marino Jakic’s match went unfinished with the score tied 5-5.

South Carolina carried its momentum into singles play, picking up first-set victories on all six courts. On court five, Karahan defeated Emesz 6-0, 6-3, while Avram took down Arthur Bellegy in straight sets at the No. 6 position. The Gamecocks secured the final point of the match as No. 79 Daryabeigi bested Jakic 6-4, 6-2 on court five.

At the No. 1 position, Barun fought back to force a third set against Hoole before his match went unfinished. No. 82 Lukas Palovic fell 4-6 in the first set to da Silva on court two and was down 1-2 in the next set as his match was abandoned. No. 124 Vrba dropped a narrow tiebreak in the first set, 6-7 (5), and was trailing 0-1 in the second set before his match concluded against No. 57 Thomson at the No. 3 position.

The Razorbacks are back in action on Saturday, March 15 at 11 a.m. to face No. 27 Florida.