Eagles defeat The Citadel, advance to quarterfinals in SoCon tournament

Lucas Baggett

The Georgia Southern University men’s tennis team started the Southern Conference tournament with a 4-0 win against the eleventh-seeded Citadel Bulldogs.

The sixth-seeded Eagles were coming into the tournament with confidence after defeating the top two seeds, Elon University and Samford University during its final week of the regular season.

The day started off great for GSU after winning all three doubles matches, giving the Eagles the early 1-0 lead.

Junior Oliver Webb and senior Matthijs Verdam handled their opponent 8-1 in the No. 1 doubles position.  Junior Marco Osorio and Southern Conference Freshman of the Year Rayane Djouad defeated their opponent 8-4 to clinch the doubles point for the Eagles.

GSU continued its dominance in singles play, winning the first three points to win the match.

Sophomore Albert Codina Sala played at the No. 2 singles position and won 6-0, 6-1. Verdam also won his singles match 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3 singles. Freshman Rafael Racy clinched the final point for the Eagles with a 6-2, 6-2 win.

GSU is set to play the College of Charleston on Friday at 11 a.m. in the quarterfinals of the SoCon tournament.