Norfolk, Va. - The No. 2 seeded Georgia State men's tennis team lost a heartbreaker to No. 3 UNC Wilmington, 4-2, Saturday afternoon in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association Championship at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center on the campus of Old Dominion.
Georgia State (21-6) finished the season with the school record for most wins but fell in the CAA semifinals for the second straight year.
"UNC Wilmington is 20-4 on the season for a reason," said head coach Chase Hodges. "We beat them a month ago, and I knew today was going to be extremely difficult. "Our guys had numerous opportunities, and the match really could have gone either way.
"We have three freshman in our top six and they had four seniors play today," added Hodges. "I think UNCW's tournament experience was the difference in the match. Our guys will learn from this."
With the Panthers trailing 3-2, Kinshuk Sharma won a three-set thriller against Victor Valente, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 7-5, to clinch the match for UNC Wilmington. Valente saved three set points in the first-set tiebreaker and won the tiebreaker 8-6 after being down 3-6. He also held a 5-4 lead in the third-set but lost three straight games.
"Most people would be incredibly happy with a 21-6 season and a national ranking but I tend to take a different approach as I expect those types of seasons every year," added Hodges. "I know that we have come a long way in a short period of time with this program, but we can't get satisfied with just having good seasons.
"We return our entire top six next season and we will be in the thick of the CAA race again," he added. "We simply need to get better every year, and the results will speak for themselves."
Georgia State lost the doubles point to fall behind 1-0. Thomas Cook and Victor Valente lost 8-6 at No. 1 doubles against Kinshuk Sharma and Chris Cooprider.
Breon Badger and Vincent Verpeaux lost 8-5 at No. 2 doubles against Kosta Blank and Illia Ziamtsou.
Juan Pablo Gutierrez and Lucas Santana were leading 7-6 at No. 3 doubles before the match was decided.
Verpeaux tied the score at 1-1 after winning in straight sets against Kosta Blank, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 5 singles. Verpeaux improves to 24-3 in singles and has won eight straight matches.
UNC Wilmington regained the lead at 2-1 after Rafael Aita won in straight sets against Gutierrez, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 4 singles.
The Seahawks increased their lead to 3-1 after Chris Cooprider won in straight sets against Badger, 6-3, 6-2, at No. 3 singles.
Cook cut the lead to 3-2 after winning in straight sets against Michael Pereira, 7-5, 6-3, at No. 2 singles. Cook improved to 16-8 in singles.
One match went unfinished as Santana was in the third set at No. 6 singles against Illia Ziamtsou. Santana won the first set, 6-0, and lost the second set, 4-6. In the third set, Santana was down 0-3 when the match was decided.
-GeorgiaStateSports.com-
