Trio of Knights Set for Singles and Doubles Championships

ORLANDO, Fla. – A trio of Knights from the No. 9 nationally seeded and No. 10 ranked UCF men's tennis team are set to begin their journey in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships starting Sunday night. Gabriel Decamps is set to participate in the singles competition while Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel will be competing for the doubles title. It will be the second career appearance for each Knight.

Decamps enters the tournament as the No. 8 nationally seeded player and is ranked at No. 9 in the Oracle/ITA singles rankings. He will be one of 64 student-athletes competing for the right to call themselves the singles champion of college tennis. His path to the title begins on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. as he faces Texas' No. 38 Micah Braswell. Decamps automatically qualified for the NCAA Singles Championships by being the highest ranked player in the conference.

Hilderbrand and Pavel are also nationally seeded as they are labeled as a 5-8 seed, although they appear to hold the No. 6 overall spot. UCF's dynamic duo checked in at No. 5 in the final release of the Oracle/ITA doubles rankings prior to the NCAA Tournament. They are one of 32 tandems competing in the competition. They'll face the nation's No. 23 ranked pair of Patrick Kaukovalta and Riccardo Roberto of Alabama on Monday. The time for that match has yet to be announced. Hilderbrand and Decamps automatically qualified for the NCAA Doubles Championships by being the highest ranked tandem in the conference.

Decamps is one of just two players to make the NCAA Singles Championships in program history with the other being Korey Lovett who reached the round of 32 in 2017 where he fell to the top seed of the tournament. Decamps is the only Knight to appear in the draw in multiple seasons after reaching the tournament previously in 2019. He was a first round exit that year as he had to retire from his match.

Hilderbrand and Pavel are in the same situation as Decamps, as they are just one of two tandems to reach the NCAA Doubles Championships. The Knight duo makes their return to the tournament after facing and nearly defeating the No. 1 overall seed in 2019. The first pair to make the draw was Lovett and Eero Vasa in 2018 who were also nationally seeded at Nos. 5-8 and reached the round of 16.

No. 8 Decamps was a winner of 13 straight matches at one point this season and comes into the tournament boasting a 17-4 record. He tallied eight victories over ranked opponents in 11 tries on his way to an American Athletic Conference Player of the Year nod and a career-best singles ranking of No. 3. His opponent in the first round, No. 38 Braswell, has climbed as high as No. 16 in his rookie campaign and was named as the Big 12 Freshman of the Year. He went 20-5 during the dual match season, seeing most of his time at No. 2 singles where he went 12-4.

After dominating foes as freshmen in 2019, No. 5 Hilderbrand and Pavel were able to reignite their hot streak midway through their sophomore campaign in 2021 and cruise to a 10-2 finish. The duo beat six ranked opponents in eight tries on their way to another top five ranking. They'll match up with Alabama's No. 23 ranked pair of Kaukovalta and Roberto who enter the weekend with a dual match record of 11-10. The senior tandem recorded a 10-8 mark at the top spot in the lineup and went 2-7 against ranked opponents and finished the season on a three-match losing streak.

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