No. 42 Auburn came up short against No. 13 South Carolina by a 4-1 score Tuesday morning in SEC championship tournament action at the Dills Indoor Courts at the George M. Billingsley Tennis Center in Fayetteville, Ark.
South Carolina took the doubles point and then went on to win five of the first sets in singles, although Auburn's Tim Dollman took his first set to a tiebreaker against Connor Thomson on court two.
The Tigers got their lone team point of the match from sophomore Finn Murgett, who defeated the Gamecocks' Jake Beasley in a straight-set win on court five by a 6-2, 6-4 score, the first singles match to finish.
The Gamecocks (14-8, 8-5 SEC) will now face No. 9 Georgia (14-5, 8-4) in third-round SEC tournament action on Wednesday morning. Auburn is now 7-15 overall and 3-10 in SEC play. The Tigers await the NCAA team and individual bids that will be announced May 3-4.
South Carolina 4, Auburn 1
Singles
#2 Daniel Rodrigues (SC) def. #28 Tyler Stice (AU) 6-4, 6-3
Tim Dollman (AU) v #25 Connor Thomson (SC) 6-7 (2), 2-5 unfinished
#93 Toby Samuel (SC) def. Tad Maclean (AU) 6-0, 7-5
Jan Galka (AU) v #59 Raphael Lambling (SC) 4-6, 4-2 unfinished
Finn Murgett (AU) def. Jake Beasley (SC) 6-2, 6-4
Thomas Brown (SC) def. Maxwell Giddens (AU) 6-4, 6-0
Doubles
#20 Daniel Rodrigues/Connor Thomson (SC) def. #27 Tad Maclean/Finn Murgett (AU) 6-2
Tyler Stice/Jan Galka (AU) v Jake Beasley/Toby Samuel (SC) 4-4 unfinished
#84 Raphael Lambling/Phillip Jordan (SC) def. Anders Fry/Maxwell Giddens (AU) 6-3
Time of match: 2:06; Order of finish: Doubles: 1,3; Singles: 5,6,1,3
