TAMPA, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The No. 32 UCF men’s tennis team swept the No. 44 USF Bulls by a score of 4-0 in Tampa on Sunday. The win gives the Knights a 12-9 record, topping their win total from last season.
“We played another really solid doubles point, we’ve been very consistent in keeping that going," said Director of Tennis John Roddick, "In singles we got off to a great start winning five out of six first sets and the only one we lost was a tiebreaker. I wanted to see us be more aggressive to get to the finish line, I felt we could do a little bit better of a job controlling our emotions as we get to the finish line, but overall going on the road against them, that a very good team.
Doubles play began with court two jumping out to a big lead and eventually finishing first. Gabriel Decamps and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi topped Jakub Wojcik and Niels Van Noord 6-1 to give the Knights the early advantage. UCF was in control on the other two courts and both were neck-in-neck looking to finish first. It would up being court won to seal the doubles point as No. 24 Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel defeated No. 67 Alberto Barroso Campos and Piere Luquet 6-4. The win was Hilderbrand and Pavel’s fifth win over a ranked duo out of six tries. They have also won six straight doubles matches. Court three went unfinished as Manoel Alencar and Alan Rubio were leading Chase Ferguson and Sergio Gomez Montesa 5-4.
The Knights got out to a fast start on all courts, winning five of six first sets. First to finish was Hilderbrand as he made quick work of Wojcik 6-1, 6-1 on court four. Hilderbrand has won five straight matches and is 8-1 over his last ten.
Winning just moments later, Mikhail Sokolovskiy took court six in identical straight sets, besting Niels Van Noord 6-2, 6-2.
The score stood at 3-0 for a while as USF hung around. Eventually, the Knights would clinch on court two as Rubio defeated Ferguson 6-4, 6-4 to blank the Bulls.
The last time the Knights swept the Bulls was back in 1997, winning 4-0 in Tampa.
Three courts went unfinished in the match. Court one saw a top-35 matchup take place as No. 32 Decamps went against No. 17 Barroso-Campos. Decamps won the first set 7-5 before Barroso-Campos won the second set 6-4.
Court three was unfinished and was the closest USF was to getting a point all day. Luquet was leading Pavel 7-6 (9-7), 4-1 when the match was clinched.
Court five was close to finishing in favor the Knights as Grassi Mazzuchi was ahead of Gomez Montesa 7-6, (7-4), 5-4.
With the win, the Knights add 6 points and take a 55-14 lead in War On I-4 with the 2018-2019 academic calendar winding down.
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The Knights will play their final home match of the regular season against the Memphis Tigers at 6 p.m.