ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) - The UCF men's tennis team saw its four-match win streak halted Saturday, as the Knights fell to No. 8 Michigan 4-1 on College Matchday at the USTA National Campus.
"We did a good job in a lot of areas today," said Director of Tennis John Roddick. "We played probably the best doubles we have all year, and then singles to come out and win four first sets against them, it's going to give our team a lot of confidence. At the same time, we can take a few lessons away from them. With a young team like this, I expect to have to go over those speed bumps."
UCF (4-3, 0-0) started the match strong, capitalizing off the nearly 1,400 people, many of whom were donning Black and Gold, that were in attendance at the USTA National Campus. The Knights opened up doubles action with two thrilling victories over Michigan (10-2, 0-0) to open the scoring.
At No.1, Korey Lovett and Eero Vasa faced one of the top duo's in the nation in Alex Knight and Runhao Hua, who came in ranked No. 8 nationally in the ORACLE/ITA Division I singles rankings. Lovett and Vasa, who are currently ranked No. 23 in doubles, earned a massive 6-4 win against the Wolverines.
The momentum continued in doubles play for UCF, as Gabriel DeCamps and Danny Kerznerman clinched the doubles point for the Knights, with a 6-3 win over Kristofer Siimar and Mattias Siimar that sent the fans into an uproar.
The Black and Gold showed plenty of fight as singles play began and went toe-to-toe in multiple matches, taking two contests to three sets.
Lovett stormed to an opening set victory over the No. 5 ranked player nationally in Knight. The senior battled hard, but ultimately fell 1-6. 6-4. 6-0 at No. 1. Fellow senior Kerznerman also pushed Davis Crocker to three sets at No. 6, but came up short in a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 defeat.
Alan Rubio hung tough against No. 33 Hua at No. 2 before dropping 6-2, 6-2. Carter Lin def. Eero Vasa 6-3, 6-2 at No. 5 to clinch the match for Michigan.
UP NEXT
The Knights will take on No. 32 Baylor at 6:00 p.m. Monday, March 5 at the USTA National Campus.
FOLLOW THE KNIGHTS
Follow UCF Men'sTennis on social media on Facebook (/UCF.MTennis), Twitter (UCF_MTennis) and Instagram (UCF.MTennis).
