University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
#38 South Carolina
Vols Defeat South Carolina 4-1 Indoors
March 14, 2015 | Men's Tennis
The Vols (10-7, 2-3 SEC) won the doubles point and jumped ahead in singles by winning four of six first sets.
Eventually, the points started falling in place for the Vols. Freshman Luis Valero was first off the court with a straight-set win on court 4. Senior Mikelis Libietis won his 15th consecutive match at the top of the lineup to put the Vols up 3-1, and sophomore Jack Schipanski clinched the victory with a three-setter on court 3.
"There isn't a quitter in the building," Tennessee head coach Sam Winterbotham said. "This was a great match where everybody was competitive. Everybody had a great attitude.
"They've all tried before but sometimes we allow the emotions to get the better of us, where it's heavy. We didn't play heavy today. We played committed, positive and that' really what we've been working toward."
Tennessee has only one match during its spring break, a Thursday roach match at Vanderbilt starting at 5 p.m. Eastern.
The Vols opened the day by winning a close doubles point. South Carolina struck first with a 6-4 win on court 2, but Tennessee won the remaining courts in a matter of seconds. Valero and Schipanski served out a 6-3 win on court 3 before second-ranked Libietis and Hunter Reese won 6-4 on court 1.
The Vols came out strong in singles by taking 4 of 6 first sets.
Libietis' first set came in dramatic fashion. He trailed Andrew Adams 2-5 and faced three set points at 15-40 before rumbling back to take the first set 7-5.
Valero was consistent from start to finish, getting off court with a 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 113 Andrew Schafer on court 4.
"It was pretty impressive how our first guy off is our freshman, who's growing up right in front of our eyes," Winterbotham said. "I think there's something that we teach him every day, and there's something he teaches us about being resolute and committed."
The victory was the first ranked win of Valero's career and good for the freshman's second win in SEC play.
"The guy fit pretty good to my game," Valero said. "I was able to be comfortable the whole time and have the control of the match. ... I think I'm getting used to the format of the dual matches, with no warmup and going from doubles to singles straight away."
South Carolina got its singles win of the afternoon a few minutes later when Harrison O'Keefe defeated Igor Smelyanski 6-4, 6-4 on court 5.
At that point, three matches were in three sets. Libietis was next off the court with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Adams at the top of the lineup.
Libietis, now ranked 14th nationally, has won 15 consecutive matches dating back to October and is 17-2 this season. He has 97 career singles wins, just three away from becoming the fifth player in program history to win 100 career matches in both singles and doubles.
With Reese and Brandon Fickey still on court, Schipanski ended the match for the Vols. He rebounded quickly from the second set for a 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 win over Thiago Pinheiro on court 3.
"Hopefully this is a momentum builder as we go forward," Winterbotham said. "I'm certainly enjoying it. These guys earned this performance today against a very good team. South Carolina competed really well, and it was a great test. I'm proud of the guys."
Tennessee 4, South Carolina 1
Singles
1. #14 Mikelis Libietis, UT, def. Andrew Adams, SC, 7-5, 6-4
2. Hunter Reese, UT, vs. Kyle Koch, SC, 6-2, 3-6, 1-1 dnf.
3. #95 Jack Schipanski, UT, def. Thiago Pinheiro, SC, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1
4. Luis Valero, UT, def. #113 Andrew Schafer, SC, 6-4, 6-3
5. Harrison O'Keefe, SC, def. Igor Smelyanski, UT, 6-4, 6-4
6. Brandon Fickey, UT, vs. Thomas Mayronne, SC, 3-6, 6-1, 2-4 dnf.
Doubles
1. #2 Libietis/Reese, UT, def. #44 Pinheiro/Koch, SC, 6-4
2. #47 O'Keefe/Mayronne, SC, def. Dromsky/Smelyanski, UT, 6-4
3. Schipanski/Valero, UT, def. Adams/Schafer, SC, 6-3
Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (4,5,1,3).
