ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 18 UCF men's tennis team won a hard-fought match as they traveled down to Miami and beat the Hurricanes by a score of 4-3 on Sunday afternoon.
"We played a solid match to beat a really good Miami team on the road today," said Director of Tennis John Roddick. "We competed really well in both singles and doubles. I'm proud of the team and their effort."
The Hurricanes jumped in front early in the doubles segment, leading by a game or two on each court. The Knights gradually worked their way back into each match, competing hard for the first point of the day.
Gabriel Decamps and Trey Hilderbrand struck first, edging No. 22 Franco Aubone and Benjamin Hannestad 6-4 at the top doubles spot. The victory is the UCF pair's second straight over a ranked duo. Miami evened the doubles point with a win on court two as Stefan Milicevic and Adria Soriano Barrera narrowly defeated Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi and Bogdan Pavel 6-4. The doubles segment came down to Mikhail Sokolovskiy and Alan Rubio who beat Bojan Jankulovski and Patrick Sebastian by a score of 6-3 to secure the point. Sokolovskiy and Rubio's victory was their first of the season.
The Knights took four of six first sets as they looked to push to a quick victory. However, three matches were forced into third sets, making for a nail biter to the very end.
Hilderbrand was the first to grab a singles point on the day as he earned his first win of the year over a ranked opponent, cruising past No. 64 Milicevic 6-2, 6-2 on court three.
Miami retaliated with a singles win of their own on court one where No. 34 Sorianao Barrera bested No. 16 Decamps 6-2, 6-2.
The back-and-forth battle continued as UCF secured court two with the tightest match of the day. No. 52 Grassi Mazzuchi went toe-to-toe with Hannestad throughout and eventually came away with a 6-4, 7-5 win to put the Knights back in front 3-2.
The Hurricanes did not go away quietly as they evened the match at 3-3 with their win on court four. After falling in the first set, Rubio picked up a quick second stanza victory. Jankulovski denied Rubio the victory that would have clinched the match for UCF as he took a 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 win.
The match's final point came down to court six. At the time of court four falling to Miami, Sokolovskiy had a commanding lead in the third set of the lone remaining match. He never looked back, powering his way to a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 win over Oren Vasser to seal UCF's first Power 6 win of the season.
UCF has won three straight matches against the Hurricanes and have been victorious in four of the last five meetings. The last time the Knights faced Miami was on College MatchDay in 2019 where the Black and Gold stunned the 29th ranked Hurricanes as they earned a 4-0 sweep.
UP NEXT
UCF is back in action on Feb. 19 as they'll take a trip to Jacksonville to face UNF at 5 p.m. The Knights will head to the other end of the state two days later as they visit FAU in Boca Raton on Feb. 21 at 1 p.m.
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