AIKEN, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Aiken men's and women's tennis teams were not able to overcome Francis Marion on Sunday afternoon at the USC Aiken Tennis Complex.
In a battle of top 10 regional teams, the regionally ninth-ranked Pacer men (3-1, 0-1 PBC) dropped a heartbreaker, 5-4, to regionally sixth-ranked and nationally 14th-ranked Francis Marion (3-1, 1-1 PBC) on Sunday.
The Pacer women (3-3, 1-1 PBC) dropped a 9-0 decision to regional No. 6 Francis Marion (5-0, 2-0 PBC).
The USC Aiken men entered singles action down 2-1.
The Pacers would pick up victories at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles. In the deciding singles match at No. 5 singles, Francis Marion's Luke Bateup would be able to secure a 7-5, 1-6, 6-1 win over USC Aiken's Lucas Gobbi (Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, Brazil/Colegio Politec).
USC Aiken's Patrick Stiebinger (Weiden, Germany/Wichita State University) collected the biggest singles win of the day for USC Aiken at No. 2 singles with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Francis Marion's Gavin Davison.
In the women's match, USC Aiken's closest chance at a point came at No. 1 doubles where the Pacer tandem of Margot Simon (Nantes, France/St. Joseph de Loquidy) and Manon Hermens (Bordeaux, France/Universitè de Bordeaux) were just shy of knocking off the national No. 11 duo of Jitka Gavdunova and Mona Blauen in an 8-5 loss.
The Pacer men and women will next welcome Benedict to the USC Aiken Tennis Complex on Thursday, March 1. Things are scheduled to get underway at 2:30 p.m.
