PALO ALTO, Calif. (UCFKnights.com) – The UCF men’s tennis team dropped a tightly contested match against the Minnesota Golden Gophers by a score of 4-3 on to close out their ITA Kickoff Weekend.
"We played very good doubles again today, but we have to play better as a team in singles," said Director of Tennis John Roddick, "We need to do a better job of playing with leads and playing with aggression. Minnesota competed well and outplayed us when it mattered."
The match began with Minnesota taking the first match of doubles on court two. Gabriel Decamps and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi were narrowly defeated by Jackson Allen and Eli Ogilvy 6-4. The Knights rebounded and took court one to even the doubles segment as Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel took down Justyn Levin and Josip Krstanovic 7-5. UCF grabbed the doubles point with a victory on court three from Alan Rubio and Mikhail Sokolovskiy as they beat Marino Alpeza and Stefan Milicevic 6-3.
The first court to finish resulted in the Golden Gophers knotting the match at one all as Minnesota’s Josip Krstanovic defeated No. 31 Decamps 6-3, 6-4.
UCF got back into it with a victory on court six as No. 88 Sokolovskiy took down Sebastian Vile 6-2, 6-4. Sokolovskiy improved his record to 3-0 in the young 2019 season. Minnesota would draw even once more as No. 45 Milicevic won his match over No. 57 Grassi Mazzuchi 6-3, 6-3 on court two.
The back and forth battle continued as No. 79 Rubio gave the Knights the 3-2 advantage. He defeated Alpeza in three sets on court four by a count of 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. Court five was the next match to finish, as Vlad Lobak edged Pavel 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 which meant the match would come down to court three with a 3-3 tie. In three sets, No. 107 Hilderbrand was bested by Allen 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 to win the match.
UP NEXT
The Knights open their home slate on Thursday against No. 4 Florida at 6 p.m. The match takes place at the UCF Collegiate Tennis Center at the USTA National Campus.
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