SCSU Men fall to Duke in NCAA Div I Men's
Tennis Championships
May 13, 2005
DURHAM, N.C. – South Carolina State, in its second trip
in as many years to the NCAA Tennis Championships, fell to
nationally-rank and heavily favored Duke 4-0 on Friday in first-round
action of the prestigious tournament at Ambler Tennis Stadium.
The Bulldogs, the two-time Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
champions, ended the season 20-6. Duke, which improved to
19-5, will face the winner of Friday’s second match – Mississippi
State and Virginia Commonwealth – on Saturday at 1
p.m. The winner moves on to the round of 16, which gets underway
May 21.
Despite the 4-0 margin by the eighth-ranked Blue Devils,
the match was more competitive than the final score might
indicate.
In doubles, where the host picked up two points, Duke’s
Peter Rodrigues and Peter Shults, playing in the number three
position, built a 3-1 lead over the Bulldogs’ Dragen
Bisercic and Hrvoje Capin and went on to an 8-2 victory.
At the number two position, SCSU’s Parantap Chaturvedi
and Jiri Vasicek were in a close match with the Blue Devils’ Charles
Brezac and Ludovic Walter, trailing just 4-5, before losing
the last three games to fall 4-8.
The match at number one doubles between Andrew Mawire and
Ionut Hurduc of SCSU, and Duke’s Jonathan Stokes and
Jason Zimmerman was called with the host leading 5-4.
In singles, Duke got victories at the number three position
from Rodrigues, 6-3, 6-3 over Bisercic; Ned Samuelson, at
number six, 6-2, 6-2 over Capin; and at number four, Shults
the clincher, 6-2, 6-0 over Hurduc.
SCSU’s Andrew Mawire, playing at number one singles
against Duke’s Walter, lost the first set 4-6, but
was ahead 3-2 in the second when the match was halted.
And, at number two, the Bulldogs’ Vasicek dropped
the first set 6-2 to Stokke, but was ahead 6-5 in the second
when that match also was stopped; and Chaturvedic of SCSU,
lost the first set 6-1 to Zimmerman before taking a 4-3 lead
in the second when the match was called.
Mawire and Walter, the nation’s number five ranked
player, provided the best show of the competition. A junior
of Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mawire held serve to open the
match for a 1-0 lead, but Walter, after holding serve to
square the match at 1-1, broke Mawire for a 2-1 advantage,
then made it 3-1 on his next serve.
Mawire held serve and got his first break of the match to
may it 3-3, then took a 40-15 lead on his serve before allowing
Walter to earn his second break for a 4-3 lead. The next
three games were on serve as Walter secured the first set
6-4.
In the second set, Mawire got the first break of the set
to go ahead 3-1, but Walter got a break in the next game
to close to within 3-2 when the competition was halted.
Bulldog acting coach Reggie Adams, who was filling in for
head coach Hardeep Judge, who coaches both the SCSU women
and men and was traveling with the women -- also in the NCAA
Championship against the University of Florida at Gainesville
-- said the Bulldogs played hard despite the loss.
“The guys played extremely hard,” Adams said. “The
match was certainly not as lopsided as the score might indicate.
“We got down early,” continued Adams, “but
made some adjustments and made several of the matches very
competitive. In fact, in the singles, three of our players
were ahead in the second set when Duke got the clincher to
wrap things up.
“Duke of course, is nationally ranked, and was strong
favorite playing at home and all, but I’m proud of
the effort and I think Coach Judge would feel the same way.
“Andrew (Mawire) was especially impressive, playing
against the number five player in the nation, and making
the match extremely close.”
The Bulldogs made their second straight exit in the first
round of the NCAA Championships and both losses came against
an Atlantic Coast Conference team. In 2004, the Bulldogs’ first
trip to the NCAA Championship, Judge’s team lost in
the opening round to host University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill.
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