LAWRENCEVILLE - Georgia Gwinnett Head Coach Chase Hodges expected Wednesday's match vs. USC Aiken to be a tougher test than any of the first three, and that's what it turned out to be as the Grizzly men's tennis team picked up an 8-1 victory over the visiting Pacers at GGC Tennis Facility.

"USC Aiken won a match in the national tournament last year, so we'll definitely take getting an 8-1 win vs. a team like that," Hodges said. "I thought our doubles play was outstanding today, and we had some much tighter matches in singles, and that's what we need. It's going prepare us to play tougher competition down the road, which we will, beginning with a top 10 team in Lander on Friday."

With the win, the top-ranked Grizzlies improved to 4-0 on the season and have now won 26 consecutive matches. USC Aiken, which was the No. 31 team in NCAA Division II, fell to 0-1.

Much like the first three matches of the 2015 campaign, the Grizzlies pounced on the visitors early, winning all three doubles matches to take the early 3-0 advantage. The Australian tandem of Luke Morland and Lachlan McPhee got it started at the top line, beating USCA's Ettore Damiani and Alejandro Andino in 8-2 fashion.

Jordan Cox and Connor Clements kept it going on Court 2, beating Julien Tan and Clement Raymond by a score of 8-3, and the tandem of Kevin Konfederak and Matias Hatem rounded it out with an 8-4 decision over Mathias Degardin and Ronan Reberac.

The Grizzlies are now 12-0 in doubles matches for the season, which resonates going into Friday's match with eighth-ranked Lander, also of NCAA Division II. In last season's match with GGC, Lander picked up doubles victories on all three courts, forcing GGC to take five of the six singles matches to secure the victory.

"Lander plays outstanding doubles. That's a fact, so we're going to have to be on top of our game going into that," Hodges said. "We've been playing well in doubles to this point, but I think they're going to challenge us in ways that we haven't been challenged yet. We're definitely going to be ready, and hopefully we'll be able to perform better this time around."

As play turned to singles, GGC faced some tougher sets than they had in earlier matches, including Tony Licata at No. 5 singles, who became the first player to drop a set on the season for the Grizzlies, going down 7-6 in the first en route to a 7-6, 6-4 loss to Raymond.

Fortunately for the Green and Gray, everyone else was successful, including reigning A.I.I. Athlete of the Week Konfederak, who dispatched Damiani in 6-1, 7-5 fashion at No. 1. At the next two spots in the line-up, Cox and Hatem showed why they were ranked in the top 10 in NAIA, winning 6-1, 6-1 over Tan and Andy Quirk, respectively.

Clements picked up a 6-4, 6-1 over Degardin at No. 4, and Lachlan McPhee played in the sixth spot, beating Andino 6-2, 6-0.

GGC's match with Lander is slated to begin at 3 p.m. at GGC Tennis Facility, and admission is free.

NOTES: GGC's 26-match winning streak is the longest of any sport at GGC ... Overall, the Grizzlies have won 10 consecutive home matches, dating back to April 2013 ... GGC is 36-1 all-time with the only loss coming to Columbus State in 2013 ... The Grizzlies are 7-1 all-time vs. competition from NCAA Division II and 5-0 vs. foes from the state of South Carolina ... Matias Hatem now carries a perfect 21-0 record in dual match competition ... GGC (NAIA), Armstrong Atlantic State (NCAA Division II), Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (NCAA Division III) and ASA College (NJCAA) are the only schools in the country that have three players ranked in the top 20 in singles in their respective division ... The 8-1 win brought an end to a run of three consecutive 9-0 decisions, which was tied for the longest such streak in school history ... Kevin Konfederak is just the third GGC athlete to earn the A.I.I. Athlete of the Week award this season, joining men's soccer players Jamie King and Lewis Sharpe.

###