ORLANDO, Fla. – UCF men's tennis' nationally seeded No. 8 Gabriel Decamps saw his season reach its end in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championships as he was edged by the country's top singles player in Kentucky's Liam Draxl 7-6 (8-6), 6-1 on Wednesday afternoon.
"Gabe played a great first set," said Director of Tennis John Roddick. "He had a great gameplan and he played it really well and just didn't execute a couple balls at the end and that was the difference. The level of tennis was extremely high. Sometimes in our game when you play well, you don't come out on top."
Decamps and Draxl were stride for stride the entirety of the first set. Both sides got close to breaking one another but neither could cash in on their opportunities. Decamps made the most of his service games, earning five aces through the first set. The two recorded twelve straight holds as the first set went to a tiebreaker. They remained close in the breaker, trading points all the way until the end as Decamps sent an overhead just over the line, sealing a Draxl first frame.
The second set saw Draxl hold serve and then break Decamps to go up 2-0. Decamps broke right back to make it 2-1, but that wound up being the lone game he collected in the second stanza.
Decamps' incredible season ends in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championships which is the farthest a Knight as every gone. He shattered the previous record held by Korey Lovett, who was the first UCF player to win a match in the tournament and reach the round of 32. Decamps earne the first national seed in the NCAA singles draw in program history. He also tied an American Athletic Conference record, becoming the first player to reach the quarterfinals since South Florida's Roberto Cid back in 2016. No player from the conference has reached the semifinals to this point.
"He had a great year," said Roddick. "We'll take that at No. 1 every single time. I'm really proud of him. It's not easy to go out there and play against the level of player you have to play against every single day. He handled it really well, he had a great record and he has proven to be one of the best players in the country"
Decamps became the first player in UCF history to qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship multiple times. He will also become the first player in school history to be named an All-American multiple times as he will get the nod for being a seeded player in the tournament. He went 17-4 during the dual match season, picking up eight wins over ranked opposition in 11 tries. He added three wins against top 40 opponents during his singles run, with two of those coming against top 20 foes. Not only did he have a fantastic spring, but also reached the final match of the ITA National Fall Championship where he was edged by his teammate Trey Hilderbrand. UCF's top singles player climbed as high as No. 3 this season in the Oracle/ITA singles rankings, a program best. The American Athletic Conference Player of the Year strung together a 13-match winning streak in the process of what will go down as the best singles campaign in school history.
Hilderbrand, along with Bogdan Pavel, who reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Doubles Championships, also receive All-American honors for being seeded in the doubles draw, making them the sixth and seventh All-Americans in program history.
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