STILLWATER, Okla. – The No. 26 UCF men's tennis completed its gauntlet of a road trip with a 4-2 victory over No. 18 Oklahoma State on Sunday afternoon. The win extends the Knights' winning streak to four, all of them over ranked opponents.
The Black and Gold earned three victories in as many days, beating No. 48 SMU 4-0 on Friday, No. 24 Oklahoma 4-0 on Saturday and No. 18 Oklahoma State on Sunday.
The victory didn't come easy, as it was a tight contest throughout, starting with doubles. Oklahoma State struck first in the match's opening segment as Emile Hudd and Dominik Kellovsky beat Gabriel Decamps and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi 6-3 on court two. The Knights answered with a 6-3 win of their own as Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel bested No. 24 Matej Vocel and Henrik Korsgaard at the top spot in doubles. Hilderbrand and Pavel have only played two matches together this season but already have two wins over ranked opponents. The doubles point came down to court three, where an extensive tiebreaker decided the match. The Cowboys took the first point of the match as Mathieu Scaglia and Etienne Donnet edged Alan Rubio and Kento Yamada 7-6 (11-9) on court three.
The Knights responded in singles by taking four of six first sets.
Grassi Mazzuchi answered with a win in singles, triumphing over Korsgaard 6-2, 6-1 on court three, earning his third straight victory and improving to 9-4 this season.
Hilderbrand gave the Knights the edge as he finished his match next, defeating Kellovsky on court five by a count of 6-3, 6-4. The win was victory number 10 on the year for Hilderbrand as he has won his last three matches. Hilderbrand didn't lose in singles or doubles this weekend, triumphing over three ranked doubles tandems and winning the two singles matches he completed.
Sokolovskiy's incredible 11-match winning streak game to an end with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Donnet on court six. Sokolovskiy hadn't lost a match since the first tilt of the season against then-No. 11 Florida.
The remaining three matches all went to third sets.
Yamada extended his perfect start to his career as a Knight, improving to 11-0 this season with a 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 victory on court four over Scaglia. UCF had the lead in the third set on the final two courts as the match was coming down to the wire.
No. 4 Decamps got the job done for the Black and Gold, edging No. 44 Vocel 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-4 at the top spot in singles to secure the victory. Decamps has triumphed in 12 straight singles matches, improving his record to 14-1 overall and 6-1 against ranked opponents.
The Knights have won four straight matches, all against ranked opponents. Prior to this week, UCF was winless against teams in the top 25 but now own a 4-3 record over teams who are ranked in the Oracle/ITA's top 50. The Black and Gold have played eight straight opponents who were either receiving votes or ranked, dating all the way back to Mar. 9. UCF has gone 7-1 during that stretch and have won 10 of their last 11 matches overall.
The Black and Gold have evened the all-time series against the Cowboys at 2-2 with Sunday's win. UCF has won the last two meetings, previously sweeping Oklahoma State in Orlando in 2019.
UP NEXT
The Knights' stretch of ranked opponents continues as they return home to host No. 12 Wake Forest on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
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