ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 10/11 UCF men's tennis team concluded their regular season on a high note, beating No. 38 Tulsa 4-1 to win their 11th consecutive match.
"It was good to end the season with another win," said Director of Tennis John Roddick. "Trey and Boggy earned a big break to win the doubles point. Really liked what I saw from Kento and Alan in singles; they did a good job getting ahead and closing out their matches with 6-0 wins in their second sets. All in all, it was a good performance. Now we look ahead to the conference tournament."
Doubles started with a solid Knight victory on court two as Gabriel Decamps and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi cruised by Tom Thelwall-Jones and Daniel Siddall 6-1. Court one held serve throughout until the final game as No. 13 Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel edged No. 48 Kody Pearson and Connor Di Marco 6-4. Hilderbrand and Pavel improve to 8-1 as a tandem this season and have wins over six ranked duos. Court three went unfinished as Mikhail Sokolovskiy and Kento Yamada were trailing Juan-Pablo Cenoz and Ezequiel Santalla 5-3.
The Knights won five of six first sets on their way to their 11th straight victory of the season. Yamada continued his impressive season, improving to 16-1 and extending his winning streak to five with a clean 6-0, 6-0 victory over Santalla on court four.
Alan Rubio was next to earn a win as he bested Di Marco on court two by a score of 6-3, 6-0, moving to 12-7 this season with an 8-5 mark at the No. 2 singles spot.
Just after Rubio's victory, Tulsa gained a point as No. 3 Decamps retired before going into a third set with No. 82 Kody Pearson.
Courts three and five battled to be the clinching point of the match. In the end, it was Hilderbrand on court five who earned the fourth point of the evening, besting Cenoz 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. Hilderbrand now sits with eight straight wins and is a remarkable 15-4 this season in singles.
No. 102 Grassi Mazzuchi was the other Knight who was close to clinching the match as he was leading Stephen Hampe 7-6 (10-8), 5-3 when the fourth point was earned by Hilderbrand.
The Knights tied their fourth longest winning streak in program history with Tuesday's victory and aren't done yet. The team achieved 11 straight victories in 1978, 12 in a row in 1995, 17 consecutive in 2003 and a program best 18 straight wins in 1977.
UP NEXT
UCF will await their opponent in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Championship Tournament which will either be Memphis or Wichita State. That match will take place on Friday at 3:30 p.m. The Knights are the top seed for the second consecutive season and earned a bye due eight-seeded Temple having to pull out of the tournament due to a positive COVID-19 result and contact tracing.
FOLLOW THE KNIGHTS
Follow UCF Men's Tennis on social media on Facebook (/UCF.MTennis), Twitter (UCF_MTennis) and Instagram (UCF.MTennis).
GET THE APP
Never miss any UCF Knights news from your favorite team by downloading the free UCF Knights app right to your iOS or Android phone! The app provides personalized information for men's and women's teams, scores, schedules, loyalty programs and even breaking news. Click here to download the app now.
