TAMPA, Fla. (Feb. 17, 2007) ? Despite a late comeback in singles play, the University of South Florida men's tennis team fell 4-3 to Georgia State, Saturday afternoon at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts.

The Panthers seized the doubles point with wins at the first and third positions, with Thomas Estrada and Mahmoud Hamed taking the match at No. 2, 8-2.

Singles play started on a bad note for the Bulls (1-5), as well, as Henning Hipp was ousted 6-0, 6-0 by GSU's Martin Stiegwardt.

At No. 5, Estrada got USF on the board with a 6-0, 7-5 defeat of Daniel Balog.  The Bulls then dropped matches at No. 2 and No. 4 to give the Panthers the four points needed to win the overall match.

Even with the scoreboard showing a 4-1 disadvantage, Ales Svigelj and Diego Toledo hung tough at spots No. 3 and six, respectively.  Both fell in their first set, but bounced back to take the remaining frames and narrow the final score.  Toledo won his second set, and then put down Augusto Alvarado 1-0(10-2) in a tie-break third set. 

Svigelj rebounded from a 6-2 first set loss to win out 6-4, 6-4 in the longest duel of the day.

The Bulls will try to end their five game skid tomorrow with a home match against FAU.  Start time is scheduled for noon.

Georgia State 4, USF 3

Doubles
1) Stiegwardt/Cevka (GSU) def. Hipp/Daudt (USF) 8-5
2) Hamed/Estrada (USF) def. Arango/Balog (GSU) 8-2
3) Skold/Alvarado (GSU) def. Svigelj/Gattiker (USF) 8-4

Singles
1) Martin Stiegwardt (GSU) def. Henning Hipp (USF) 6-0, 6-0
2) Mattias Skold (GSU) def. Marc Jaeger (USF) 6-2, 6-4
3) Ales Svigelj (USF) def. Anze Cevka (GSU) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
4) Andres Arango (GSU) def. Mahmoud Hamed (USF) 6-3, 6-3
5) Thomas Estrada (USF) def. Daniel Balog (GSU) 6-0, 7-5
6) Diego Toledo (USF) def. Augusto Alvarado (GSU) 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-2)