March 6, 2010
Clemson, S.C. (UCFAthletics.com) - Playing against one of the nation's premier teams, the 75th-ranked UCF men's tennis squad dropped a 5-2 match at No. 45 Clemson Saturday. The Knights swept in doubles competition, but the Tigers took five of six singles points.
UCF cruised past Clemson in doubles competition. Senior Brock Sakey (Gulf Breeze, Fla.) and sophomore Claudio Romano (Valencia, Venezuela) held off Gera Boryachinskly and Robert Pietrucha at No. 3, 8-1, while senior Johan Beigart (Vaxjo, Sweden) and sophomore Joe Delinks (Falmouth, Mass.) clinched the point for UCF at No. 2, with an 8-2 victory. The final doubles win came when senior Marc Rocafort (Barcelona, Spain) and junior Blaze Schwartz (Pensacola, Fla.) had a 8-1 victory over Rok Bizjak and Moritz Dettinger at No. 1.
"We played tremendous doubles today at all three positions but we were not able to carry that momentum into singles," head coach Bobby Cashman said. "We lost too many first sets and despite fighting back to force a third set on 3 courts we couldn't come up with enough wins. We are putting this behind us quickly to prepare for Winthrop tomorrow."
In singles competition, a 6-4 lead by Sakey in the first set gained the second point for the Knights after play ended early due to Clemson's Rok Bizjak's injury.
UCF continues the dual-match weekend Sunday against Winthrop in Atlanta, Ga. at 10 a.m.
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No. 45 Clemson 5, No. 75 UCF 2
Singles Competition
1. Derek DiFazio (Clemson) def. Marc Rocafort (UCF) 7-6, 3-6, 7-6
2. Carlos Alvarez (Clemson) def. Nino Hasandedic (UCF) 6-0, 6-4
3. Brock Sakey (UCF) def. Rok Bizjak (Clemson) 6-4, 0-1, unfinished
4. Kevin Galloway (Clemson) def. Claudio Romano (UCF) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
5. Wesley Moran (Clemson) def. Blaze Schwartz (UCF) 6-3, 6-0
6. Zachary Rigsby (Clemson) def. Johan Beigart (UCF) 6-0, 6-7, 6-2
Doubles Competition
1. Marc Rocafort/Blaze Schwartz (UCF) def. Rok Bizjak/Moritz Dettinger (Clemson) 8-2
2. Johan Beigart/Joe Delinks (UCF) def. Carlos Alvarez/Juan Bolona (Clemson) 8-2
3. Claudio Romano/Brock Sakey (UCF) def. Gera Boryachinskly/Robert Pietrucha (Clemson) 8-1