COLUMBIA, S.C. – The University of Pennsylvania men's tennis team dropped its ITA Kickoff Weekend opener, 4-0, against #8 South Carolina Saturday afternoon.
 
The Gamecocks won at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to claim the early point, with the showdown between the #1 (South Carolina's Toby Samuel and Connor Thomson) and #7 teams (Penn's Edoardo Graziani and Kevin Zhu) in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Doubles Rankings halting with the match tied at 5-all.

In singles action, the Gamecocks' James Story knocked off Harsh Parikh in straight sets at No. 4 to put South Carolina up 2-0. The top-50 matchup at No. 1 between #15 Samuel and #48 Graziani went in favor of Samuel in straight sets. Thomson claimed the match's deciding point with a straight-set win over Zhu at the No. 2 spot.

Among the matches that did not finish, Baylor Sai had rallied back after losing the first set, 6-0, for a 6-4 second-set win, and was leading 5-3 in the third at No. 6. Additionally, Manfredi Graziani had a one-set lead in his match at No. 5, and Aditya Gupta was tied 5-all in the second set, looking to push his match to a third.

Up Next
Penn is back in action tomorrow against either North Carolina State or Virginia Commonwealth (VCU). Match time is also to be determined.

DOUBLES
1 – E. Graziani/Zhu (P) vs. Toby Samuel/Connor Thomson (SC)  5-5 DNF
2 – Jake Beasley/James Story (SC) def. M. Graziani/Kian Vakili (P) – 6-2
3 – Raphael Lambling/Casey Hoole (SC) def. Gupta/Parikh (P) – 6-4

SINGLES
1 – #15 Toby Samuel (SC) def. #48 E. Graziani (P)  6-3, 6-4
2 – Connor Thomson (SC) def. Zhu (P)  6-1, 7-6 (7)
3 – Gupta (P) vs. Raphael Lambling (SC)  1-6, 5-5 DNF
4 – James Story (SC) def. Parikh (P) – 6-3, 6-3
5 – M. Graziani (P) vs. Casey Hoole (SC)  7-6 (5), 2-2 DNF
6 – Sai (P) vs. Jake Beasley (SC)  0-6, 6-4, 5-3 DNF
 
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