ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The No. 42 UCF men’s tennis team swept the No. 26 Oklahoma State Cowboys 4-0 on Wednesday night to give the Knights their fourth win over a ranked opponent this season.
“The doubles point was really good today,” said Director of Tennis John Roddick, “Oklahoma State hasn’t lost many doubles points this season. That was something we were concerned with, but we have been playing very good doubles as well. We had a good win at six and Alan did a good job winning on two, and then at the point you’re ok with four dog fights at that point because you only need one to win.”
Doubles play saw UCF jump out to leads on two of three courts. Oklahoma State hung tough though and get themselves back in the segment. The first court to finish was court two as Gabriel Decamps and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi defeated Artur Dubinski and Matej Vocel 6-3. The Knights clinched the doubles point on court one as No. 54 Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel topped No. 37 Maxim Tybar and Mathieu Scaglia 7-5. Hilderbrand and Pavel pick up their first win as a ranked duo and win their third match against a ranked doubles pair. Court three went unfinished as Mikhail Sokolovskiy and Manoel Alencar trailed Luke Hammond and Emile Hudd 4-5.
Singles play began with a quick straight set victory for UCF on court six. Sokolovskiy bested Hammond 6-2, 6-3 to get his team-leading ninth singles win of the season.
Soon after, Alan Rubio picked up a win on court two by besting Tybar 6-2, 6-4. The Knights got to three points on the match in a hurry and would just need one more singles point to win the match.
It took a while to find the last point for UCF. At some moments, it looked like Oklahoma State could surge and make a major comeback with four nail biters in progress. All those fears were put to rest when Pavel edged No. 90 Dubinski 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 on court three, giving the Knights a 4-0 sweep.
The three unfinished matches were very close and could have gone either way if they had been played out. The next closest to finishing was court one where No. 38 Decamps was leading No. 68 Vocel in the third set. Their score will remain at 4-6, 6-4, 54.
Court four saw a street fight between Hilderbrand and Scaglia. The first two sets needed tiebreakers, with each player taking one and forcing a third set. Hilderbrand trailed midway through the third set 6-7 (8-10), 7-6 (7-3), 3-4.
Another tight match took place on court five where Grassi Mazzuchi and Hudd were knotted up for just about the entirety of set 3. After losing the first set, Grassi Mazzuchi saw his score sit at 3-6, 7-5, 3-3
UP NEXT
The Knights will have another quality opponent on their hands on Friday at noon as No. 13 Illinois pays a visit to the UCF Collegiate Tennis Center at the USTA National Campus.
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