ATLANTA--The No. 75-ranked
Georgia State men's tennis team looks to kick-off its spring break schedule
with a home match against North Florida on Monday morning at the Blackburn
Tennis Center (10 a.m.).
The
Panthers (8-7) begin a stretch of three matches in five days, all against teams
from the state of Florida. GSU hosts UNF (8-6) before travelling to Boca Raton,
Fla., to play Florida Atlantic on Wednesday and to Coral Gables, Fla., to face
Miami on Friday. GSU owns a 4-3 win over North Florida this season at the ITA
Kick-Off weekend in late January.
Georgia
State, led by first-year head coach Joerg Barthel, is looking to bounce back from a 4-2 defeat at UAB last Wednesday. Senior
Lucas Santa Ana and sophomore Sofiane Chevallier delivered singles victories
for GSU in the match. Santa Ana earned his eighth singles win of the year while
Chevallier won his second match in his last three tries.
GSU
took the last matchup against North Florida after earning a hard-fought doubles
point. Seniors Victor Valente and Santa Ana won an 8-5 match at the No. 2
position while junior Robert Schulze and Chevallier won an 8-4 match at the No.
3 spot. Schulze was the first to finish his singles match, winning an efficient
6-0, 6-2 contest against Pedro Davisson. Valente then notched his first singles
win against a nationally-ranked opponent of the spring with a 6-4, 6-3 triumph
vs. No. 72-ranked Moritz Buerchner. With the team score tied at 3-3, junior
Thomas Cook clinched the match with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win in the No. 2 slot
against Norbert Nemcsek.
North
Florida is coming off back-to-back victories against Kennesaw State and Mercer.
Buerchner has since dropped out of the ITA National Singles rankings, but is
ranked No. 10 with Nemcsek in the ITA National Doubles rankings. The duo owns two
wins against nationally-ranked doubles teams. UNF owns victories over Sun Belt
Conference opponents Louisiana Lafayette (4-3) and South Alabama (5-2) this
season. The team also won a 5-2 match against Miami when it was ranked No. 54
in the nation on Feb. 24.
Live
stats for GSU's match vs. North Florida will be available on
GeorgiaStateSports.com. Visit the men's tennis page following the conclusion of
the match for a full recap and all results.
www.GeorgiaStateSports.com
