PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – Southern Miss came from behind to win five of the six singles matches on Wednesday in the opener for the 2023 Sun Belt Conference Men’s Tennis Championship at the Peachtree City Tennis Center. They advance to face No. 1 seed South Alabama in the quarterfinals. 

The Golden Eagles started the tournament with a thrilling match as the ninth seed defeated No. 8 seeded Coastal Carolina. It marked the first Sun Belt Conference Men's Tennis Tournament win for the program.

Southern Miss advances to face the 2023 Regular Season Co-Champions at 2 p.m. EST. The matches will be broadcast live on ESPN+. 

Match 1: (9) Southern Miss 5, (8) Coastal Carolina 2
Box Score

Ninth-seeded Southern rallied after losing the doubles point to defeat eighth-seeded Coastal Carolina 5-2 in the lone match of the day on Wednesday. 

Coastal Carolina (10-13) picked up a pair of doubles points as the duos of Lucas Wayenburg / Steve Mundt and Carlos Berna Ruiz / Ryuya Ata won on courts one and three, respectively. 

Southern Miss (8-14) won five of the six singles matches to earn the victory. First at court five, Pawin Jirapoomdaje downed O’Connor, 6-4, 6-3. Then at court two, Alan Sanson defeated Tolmac, 6-4, 7-5. Saheb Sodhi put the Golden Eagles a match away from victory with a win at No. 4 singles, beating Toresan, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3.
 
Coastal Carolina answered with a singles win on court three as Ata defeated Nabiev 6-4, 6-2. After trailing 5-1 in the third set, Berna Ruiz forced the match to 5-5 on court one. Shamirul Shahril won the match 3-6, 6-4, 7-5. Pasawee Reansuwong won his match seconds later on court six 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 for the final score of 5-2.