ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – The UCF men’s tennis team bolted up to No. 28 in Tuesday’s release of the Oracle/ITA rankings, tying their program’s best team ranking set back on April 5, 2017.
The Knights have gone 1-0 since the last team rankings were released on March 26. They swept the FAU Owls 7-0, a team that had won seven straight prior to the match and made a few appearances in the Oracle/ITA top-50 earlier in the season.
Gabriel Decamps climbs four spots in the singles rankings to No. 34. He has gone 1-1 since the last release of the rankings, picking up a 6-1, 6-1 victory over FAU’s top singles player Jason Legall. His loss came to one of the nation’s best as he lost to No. 14 Aleks Kovacevic. Decamps nearly won his match with No. 68 Matej Vocel, but the match was clinched moments before Decamps could have won. Their match finished 4-6, 6-4, 5-4 as UCF swept No. 26 Oklahoma State 4-0.
UCF’s top duo of Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel have been outstanding ever since cracking into the last edition of the doubles rankings at No. 54. The tandem has gone 3-0 since that time to bump them to No. 20 this week. They are now the highest ranked freshmen duo in the nation.
Hilderbrand and Pavel defeated two ranked pairs in those three victories, topping No. 26 Oklahoma States top pair ranked No. 37 by a score of 7-5 and defeating FAU’s No. 69 duo 6-4. Their other win came against No. 13 Illinois as they defeated their top pair that day 7-6 (7-4). Illinois does have a ranked doubles tandem, but they were split up for the match with UCF.
UP NEXT
The Knights have some time off before hitting the road. UCF will renew their rivalry with the USF Bulls as the War on I-4 resumes in Tampa on April 14 at 1:30 PM. The Black and Gold will return home the following day to round out their regular season against the Memphis Tigers.
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