March 26, 2005

Statesboro, GA - Playing for the first time in 10 days, the Georgia Southern men's tennis team dropped a 6-1 decision to SoCon foe The Citadel Saturday afternoon at Hanner Courts in a match that was much closer than the score would indicate. Senior Danie Van den Heever accounted for the Eagles' point with a win at No. 2 singles.

Georgia Southern put itself into an early 1-0 hole when The Citadel (8-7, 4-3 SoCon) jumped out to a 1-0 lead by winning at the second and third doubles positions. Diego Flores and Germano Knorr, teamed together Saturday for the first time this season, lost 8-4 to David Lara and Nicholas Medica at the second spot while Tom Green and Charles-Henri Trottet fell 8-5 to Derek Jose and Ananda Sawmynaden at No. 3. The Eagles did take the match at No. 1, as Vincent Patry and Van den Heever posted a 9-8(5) victory against Daniel Dossetor and James Eason in a tightly contested match. The win improves the Georgia Southern duo's record to 8-6 and 2-1 in the conference, and was just the second conference loss in seven matches for The Citadel pairing.

Van den Heever upped his SoCon singles mark to 2-1 with a convincing 6-4, 6-3 win over Sawmynaden at the No. 2 spot, but none of his teammates could find the consistency needed to claim victories in other matches. Georgia Southern players were involved in a trio of tight three-set matches, but could not produce a win in any of them. Had they won all of them, the team would have walked away with a victory. Patry, who has played at the No. 1 spot for the Eagles all season, won the first set of his match against Dossetor 6-3 before dropping a tight second set 5-7. The Citadel got the crucial point when Dossetor triumphed 6-4 in the decisive third set. Green cruised during the first set of his match against Eason at the third spot, winning 6-1. He could not sustain the momentum however, losing the second set 3-6 and coming up just short in the third, falling 5-7. In the last of the three-set marathons, Trottet bounced back from narrowly losing the first set 5-7 to Medica by winning the second 6-2. The two players were engaged in a fierce battle for the third set when Trottet was forced to retire trailing 4-5.

Other singles matches saw Lara defeat Knorr 6-1, 6-0 at the fourth spot and Jose down Flores 6-2, 6-4 at No. 6.

With the loss, Georgia Southern drops to 2-12 overall and 1-2 in the conference. They will attempt to even their conference record Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 against Elon. The Phoenix have yet to win in SoCon play, standing at 0-5 and 3-10 overall, but they boast one of the conference's best players in Pramote Malasitt. The senior, who has already garnered three Southern Conference Player of the Week awards, sits at 12-1 overall and 5-0 in the conference.

The Citadel 6, Georgia Southern 1

SINGLES

No. 1: Daniel Dossetor (CIT) d. Vincent Patry (GSU) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4

No. 2: Danie van den Heever (GSU) d. Ananda Sawmynaden (CIT) 6-4, 6-3

No. 3: James Eason (CIT) d. Tom Green (GSU) 1-6, 6-3, 7-5

No. 4: David Lara (CIT) d. Germano Knorr (GSU) 6-1, 6-0

No. 5: Nicholas Medica (CIT) d. Charles-Henri Trottet (GSU) 7-5, 2-6, 5-4 (dnf)

No. 6: Derek Jose (CIT) d. Diego Flores (GSU) 6-2, 6-4

DOUBLES

No. 1: Patry/van den Heever (GSU) d. Dossetor/Eason (CIT) 9-8(5)

No. 2: Lara/Medica (CIT) d. Flores/Knorr (GSU) 8-4

No. 3: Jose/Sawmynaden (CIT) d. Green/Trottet (GSU) 8-5