ORLANDO, Fla. – UCF men's tennis' No. 5 Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel saw their season come to close in the NCAA Doubles Championships Round of 16 as South Alabama's No. 44 Loic Cloes and Clement Marzol edged the Knight duo by a score of 7-5, 6-4.
The match was ultimately decided by two breaks. The first set saw both sides hold serve through the first 10 games, resulting in a 5-5 score. The Jaguar duo broke the 5-8 nationally seeded UCF tandem in the following game and went on to secure the hold and 7-5 first set victory.
The second set was more of the same as both sides held serve through the first six games. South Alabama earned the break to go up 4-3 before holding to get to 5-3. The Black and Gold survived two match points to hold and draw closer at 5-4. The Jaguars closed it out in a tight final game to win the set and the match.
Hilderbrand and Pavel had seen this duo once before, taking a 7-5 victory over the Jaguar pair back in March of 2019. The Knights as a team have faced South Alabama once a season for the last three campaigns and have lost the doubles point each time. The Jaguar tandem of Cloes and Marzol played a big role in that, as they beat Hilderbrand and Gabriel Decamps 6-4 earlier this season and topped Decamps and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi by the same score in March of 2020.
Hilderbrand and Pavel posted a tremendous season and advanced to the Round of 16 with a three-set victory over Alabama's 23rd ranked tandem. The Knight pair finish their sophomore season with an 11-3 record as they climbed as high as No. 5 this year, just two spots short of tying their personal and program best.
Korey Lovett and Eero Vasa were the only other duo to ever qualify for the NCAA Doubles Championships and made it as far as the Sweet 16 back in 2018. Lovett and Vasa were also tabbed as a No. 5-8 national seed that season. This was Hilderbrand and Pavel's second appearance in the NCAA doubles draw, making them the first pair in program history to accomplish that feat.
UP NEXT
No. 8 Decamps will take on Kentucky's No. 1 nationally seeded Liam Draxl in the NCAA Singles Championship Quarterfinals tomorrow at noon.
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