Box Score
Samford Stats
SoCon Tournament Central

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- With the score of Friday's Southern Conference Tournament first-round match between fourth-seeded Samford and fifth-seeded UNCG knotted at 3-3, all eyes shifted to court No. 4 where the Bulldogs' Justin Ghavami battled to a thrilling 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 singles victory over the Spartans' Cameron Smith.
 
Ghavami's win clinched Samford's 4-3 triumph and secured the Bulldogs' advancement to the semifinal round of the 2015 SoCon Tournament. On Saturday, Samford (10-10) will square off against top-seeded ETSU (16-7) at 1 p.m. (CDT) at the Reeves Tennis Center on the campus of Wofford University.
 
The Bulldogs' feisty true freshman from Montreal, Canada, Ghavami proved to be victorious in both singles and doubles play Friday. His singles win clinched the overall team victory and his doubles triumph secured the all-important doubles point against UNCG (11-10).
 
In doubles, Samford rallied to take its early 1-0 advantage over the Spartans by tallying wins on courts No. 2 and No. 3.
 
The Bulldogs' No. 2 doubles combination of Austin Akers and Henry Moore topped UNCG's pairing of William Albright and Warren Bryan, 8-4. With their victory, Samford's Akers and Moore improved to 7-9 in dual-match play this season.
 
In front of 40-plus raucous Samford fans made up primarily of the Bulldogs' baseball team, which was in town for a three-game series against Wofford, the No. 3 doubles tandem of Ghavami and Fares Kilani rolled to an 8-4 victory to clinch the doubles point. Samford's Ghavami and Kilani tallied their third-consecutive win and moved to 5-3 this season.
 
The Bulldogs took their 1-0 lead into singles play, but then UNCG rebounded with a singles win on court No. 2 to even the score at 1-1.
 
On court No. 5, Samford true freshman Eduardo Lourido Sanchez defeated the Spartans' Gaston Murray, 6-0, 6-2, before the Bulldogs' Jake Faundez topped UNCG's William Albright, 7-6, 6-1. Faundez, who is one of three talented freshmen in Samford's starting lineup this season, improved to 11-7 in singles play and gave the Bulldogs their critical 3-2 advantage.
 
With two matches still in play, Samford needed just one more point to clinch Friday's first-round victory.
 
Next up, UNCG evened the overall score of the contest at 3-3 as Randy Phillips held off the Bulldogs' Kilani, 7-5, 7-6, on court No. 1. All attention then shifted to court No. 4 as Samford's Ghavami secured the victory for the Bulldogs.
 
The Samford University men's tennis team will next be in action Saturday at 1 p.m. (CDT) as the Bulldogs square off against the regular-season champion ETSU Buccaneers in a semifinal contest to be held at the Mickel Tennis Center on the campus of Furman University in Greenville.
 
Earlier this season, Samford and ETSU met in Johnson City, Tennessee on March 29 and the Buccaneers held off the Bulldogs for a 5-2 win.

Box Score
Samford Stats
SoCon Tournament Central