Feb. 4, 2012

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University men's tennis team will continue its 2012 season-opening homestand Sunday as the Bulldogs play host to the USC Upstate Spartans in a non-conference matchup to be held at the Samford Tennis Center.

Samford (1-0) heads into the contest riding the positive momentum of a hard-fought 4-3 home victory against Lipscomb. In the win, the Bulldogs used a straight-set singles triumph from Fernando Costa on court No. 4 to clinch the season-opening triumph.

Against Lipscomb, with the overall score of the match knotted at 3-3, all attention shifted to court No. 4 where Samford's Costa and the Bison's Colby Shaw battled for the key victory. Costa, the Bulldogs' sophomore from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, secured his team's overall win with a 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Shaw.

USC Upstate (1-0) opened its 2012 season with a 5-2 victory at Gardner-Webb on Jan. 26. In their win, the Spartans began the match by claiming the doubles point after sweeping all three doubles contests.

In singles action, USC Upstate won four of the six matches to pick up the victory. At singles No. 1, Matthias Kidler won in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5, over Korhan Ates. Ramiro Blanco also picked up a straight-set victory, 6-2, 6-1, as he defeated Adam Knutsson-Sundblad.

The Spartans' Pierre Vernin rallied for a three-set victory over Joao Poli at singles No. 5. Tyler Grove, like Kidler and Vernin, picked up his first win as a Spartan. Grove defeated Brendan Dempsey, 6-3, 6-2 at singles No. 6.

USC Upstate was slated to square off against UAB on Saturday, but the result of the match was unknown at press time. Samford was originally scheduled to play at Georgia State on Saturday, but its duel was canceled due to an incessant rainstorm in the Atlanta area.

Following Sunday's non-conference matchup against USC Upstate, the Samford University men's tennis team will next be in action Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs compete in their first road match of the season against the Troy Trojans in Troy, Ala.