WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (UCFKnights.com) – In a year of firsts for the UCF tennis programs, Korey Lovett and Eero Vasa added to the accolades Thursday from the Wake Forest Tennis Complex.
The duo defeated Henrik Korsgaard and Alexandre Ribeiro of Virginia Tech, 6-4, 6-4 in the opening round of the NCAA Doubles Championships and will now move on to play Friday in the round of 16.
"Korey and Eero played very well today," said John Roddick, men's head coach and UCF Director of Tennis. "We did a great job of taking care of our service games and we made a lot of returns. Very good effort today."
This was the first time in UCF men's tennis program history that the Knights sent a doubles pair to the NCAA Championships and came away with the program's first NCAA Championship victory.
The tandem, who are currently ranked eighth nationally by the Oracle/ITA, entered the tournament on a four-match win streak and extended their team leading record to 16-2 playing every match together at the No. 1 position.
Lovett and Vasa opened Thursday's match with a back-and-forth opening set. The pair were able to push through a slow start vs. the No. 27th ranked tandem in Korgaard and Ribeiro, to take the opening set, 6-4.
The second set showed why these two have excelled together this season. The Knights duo went ahead early and kept their foot on the gas for another 6-4 set win to clinch the match.
The sights are now set on the second round, where Lovett and Vasa will play Martin Redlick and Evan Zhu of UCLA. The Bruin duo took down Gus Benson and Cesar Bourgois of Kentucky in their opening round match.
The Sweet 16 showdown begins at 2 p.m., with the winner advancing to play the winner of Nuno Borges/Strahinja Rakic of Mississippi State and Chema Carranza/Josef Dodridge of Wisconsin Saturday.
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