SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford College men's tennis team earned a hard-fought 5-2 victory Friday afternoon over the Limestone College Saints at Reeves Tennis Center.
 
The Terriers (6-6) took two of the three doubles matches to earn the first point and then went on to win four of the six singles matches. Two singles matches went to a third set, and the Saints (2-2) lone doubles victory came down to the wire.
 
"We badly needed a day like today," Coach Ray said after the match. "We may have learned more about ourselves today than any match this year. You always want a perfect performance from a perfect effort and we didn't have that today, but I'm convinced we're better after today. After the match, I saw a passion in our guys' eyes that although we had won, they were far from satisfied. We've got some things to learn, but we're getting closer to being a darn good team."
 
Junior Andrew Graham and freshman Alan Poric were first to finish their doubles match, winning 6-3 over Giacomo Campus and Luka Stanec of Limestone in the third doubles position. Junior Haris Poric and senior Parks Thompson also won their doubles match over Limestone's Stefano Soares and Benji Lascari Diaz 6-4 at the one spot to clinch the doubles point for Wofford.
 
Limestone's Gustavo D'Ascenzi and Guillermo Ortega played Wofford senior David Sklar and junior Trevor Gotkowski at the two position. Gotkowski and Sklar kept the match close but ultimately fell 7-6.
 
In singles, Haris Poric cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 victory at the one position over Soares, moving his singles record for the season to 9-2.
 
Freshman Kyle Barr was next to finish at the six position. He was triumphant over Campus 6-3, 6-0, pushing Wofford's lead to 3-0 in the match.
 
The Terriers suffered a setback in the next finished singles match. Limestone's Diaz at the three position defeated Thompson 6-4, 6-0 to give the Saints their first point of the match.
 
Sklar however clinched the match for Wofford at the four position. His 6-2, 6-3 victory over Stanec put the Terriers up 4-1.
 
The final two singles matches both went to a third set. Gotkowski at the five position won his first set over Limestone's Ortega 6-2 but dropped the next set 4-6 to force a tiebreaker. Gotkowski and Ortega started off going back and forth in the third-set tiebreaker, but Gotkowski pulled away and won 10-5 to take the match.
 
D'Ascenzi gave the Saints their second win of the match. He won his first set over Alan Poric 6-1, but Poric battled to win the next set 7-5 to push the match into a third set, where D'Ascenzi won 10-6.
 
The win gives the Terriers a 5-9 overall record against Limestone College. Before Friday's match, the two teams had not played since the 1986-87 season.
 
Wofford will begin Southern Conference play in their next match, as the Terriers go on the road March 12 to face the Mercer Bears at 2 p.m.