ATLANTA - The No. 73 Georgia State men's tennis knocked off No. 52 Georgia Tech at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex Friday evening. This was the second win this season over a ranked opponent for the Panthers.

This was also the second win in program history over Georgia Tech. The first win came in 2000.

Freshman Jannis Koeke clinched the match for the GSU at No. 2 singles. He defeated Nathan Rakitt 7-6, 6-1. Koeke has now won three of his last four matches, two of the wins coming against ranked teams.

Senior Thomas Cook won his match for the Panthers at No. 1 singles. After losing the first set, 7-5, to Carlos Benito, Cook fought back to win the second set 6-2. He was up 1-0 in the third set when Benito retired.

Freshman Eric Baum cruised through his match at No. 6 singles, defeating Colin Edwards 6-2, 6-1 to become the first singles match to finish and giving GSU a 2-0 lead. 

Senior Robert Schulze was leading Eduardo Segura 7-5, 5-4 when the match was called. Sofiane Chevallier was also leading his match against Cole Fiegel, 6-4, 3-2, when play was stopped.

The Panthers kicked the evening off winning the doubles point. Cook and Valentin Horvat won their match at No. 2 doubles 8-7 (7-3) over Rakitt and Fiegel. Koeke and Baum clinched the doubles point with their 8-4 win over Will Showers and Edwards. 

"We played tough on all nine courts and deserved this team win," head coach Joerg Barthel said. "We came together as a team over the past weeks and this is a signature win for our program."

The Panthers will have the next seven days off before hosting New Mexico and Drake on March 15 and 16.