ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The No. 49 UCF men’s tennis team was defeated by the No. 4 Virginia Cavaliers 4-1 on Tuesday afternoon.
“We competed well,” said Director of Tennis John Roddick, “We started a little slow in doubles. Singles we did well, we came out and played hard, won a lot of first sets and got into some third sets. We competed great, we just came up a little short. They’re one of the best teams in the country. We’re proud of the way we’re playing, we’ve just got to get over the hump. We’ve had a tough schedule, but good things are happening and we’re playing at a much higher level.”
Virginia came storming out of the gates in doubles play. They took court three 6-1 as Alan Rubio and Mikhail Sokolovskiy fell to Gianni Ross and Aswin Lizen. The Cavaliers clinched the doubles point when No. 71 Brandon Nakashima and Henrik Wiersholm defeated Gabriel Decamps and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi 6-2. Court one went unfinished as Bogdan Pavel and Trey Hilderbrand were tied with Carl Soderlund and William Woodall 4-4.
Singles play was highly contested on each court, with five of six matches going into three sets. Manoel Alencar picked up his first collegiate victory on court six as he was the first singles court to finish. Alencar triumphed over Woodall 6-4, 6-1 to tie the match at 1-1.
The remainder of the matches went to three sets. The first court to fall to Virginia was court two where No. 15 Soderlund topped No. 122 Rubio 2-6, 6-0, 6-3.
Virginia pulled to within one of the clincher on court four where No. 96 Ross edged Hilderbrand 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 7-5.
The Knights were competing hard in every remaining court and made things tough for Virginia. Eventually, the Cavaliers would clinch the match on court three where Wiersholm won a war over Pavel 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
The remaining two courts went unfinished, but both were in a heated battle. Court one saw No. 18 Decamps and No. 50 Nakashima go to a third set with a score of 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 4-5. Court five didn’t get the chance to finish either, where Grassi Mazzuchi was against Lizen with a score of 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 2-3.
UP NEXT
The Knights will face a ranked Texas Tech team on Thursday at 6 p.m. The Red Raiders will come into the match having won three of their last four matches.
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