ORLANDO, Fla. – Highlighted by 10 home matches at the UCF Collegiate Tennis Center at the USTA National Campus and plenty of Power 6 matchups against some of the nation's top teams, the No. 16 UCF men's tennis team has announced their 2021 dual match schedule.
UCF will face eight teams from the state of Florida this season. Their schedule includes some competitive Power 6 matchups as the Knights will square off against three ACC teams, two Big 12 schools and two SEC squads. The Black and Gold will face seven teams that were ranked in the top-50 of the Oracle/ITA team poll at the time of the 2020 season shutting down.
The Knights' 18-match slate is set to begin at home as they host No. 9 Florida on Jan. 29. The opening weekend homestand wraps up as UCF hosts long time rival South Florida. It will be one of two meetings between the War On I-4 foes this year.
The Black and Gold take a trip around Florida in February, visiting the Miami Hurricanes on Feb. 7, UNF on Feb. 19 and FAU on Feb. 21. The last time UCF faced Miami was on College MatchDay back on Mar. 3, 2019. The Knights steamrolled their way to a sweep of the No. 29 Hurricanes in what proved to be a statement win.
UCF opens a four match homestand by hosting a pair of Florida foes. FGCU pays the Knights a visit on Feb. 26 followed by Stetson on Mar. 7. The Black and Gold then host South Alabama on Mar. 9 and No. 12 Wake Forest on Mar. 10. This is the third straight season that the Demon Deacons have been on the schedule. UCF has been close to defeating the 2018 national champions in both attempts in the previous two seasons.
The Knights will travel to Tallahassee to face Florida State on Mar. 19. The last time these two sides met was in the 2019 NCAA Tournament where UCF fell in a 4-3 heartbreaker. This is the first regular season match between the teams since 2017.
The Black and Gold return home for a match with Arkansas on Mar. 24 before heading away from the east coast.
UCF will play three matches in three days in the central time zone. They'll start their trip by facing their second conference opponent of the season as they visit SMU on Mar. 26. The Knights will then travel north to face Oklahoma on Mar. 27 and No. 14 Oklahoma State on Mar. 28.
The away slate concludes on Apr. 3 as UCF visits South Florida for the War on I-4 finale. Each match with the rival Bulls will be worth three points to the overall tally between the two schools.
The Knights wrap up the regular season schedule by hosting Tulane on Apr. 4, Memphis on Apr. 18 and Tulsa on Apr. 20.
The American Athletic Conference Championships are scheduled to be held on UCF's home courts from Apr. 23-25. The Knights will be seeking to hoist their first conference title as a member of The American and their first since 2005.
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