ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 20 UCF men's tennis team advances to the ITA Kickoff Championship match with a win over Louisville on Sunday by a score of 4-3 in the ITA Kickoff Weekend at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
"A win is a win, and we will take that and move on to tomorrow," Lleyton Cronje said, "It feels great to get my first victory as a Knight. Bogdan and I came on very strong in doubles and we played some amazing tennis there and it related to my singles match."
Despite dropping the first doubles match, the Knights dominated on court one and two to clinch the doubles point.
On court three, Alan Rubio and Kento Yamada fell to Josh Howard-Tripp and Tin Chen on court three, 6-0. But shortly after, Bogdan Pavel and Lleyton Cronje brought the heat to defeat Etienne Donnet and Natan Rodrigues on court one with a score of 6-1. Trey Hilderbrand and Cooper White followed suit with a 6-2 win on court two over Sergio Hernandez and Alex Wesbrooks to clinch the doubles point.
Lleyton Cronje kept the momentum going into singles to get the first win on court three over Tin Chen by score of 6-3, 6-3 to help the Knights lead 2-0.
On court four, Kento Yamada fell to Natan Rodrigues, 6-3, 6-2, giving the Cardinals their first point while Bogdan Pavel also fell to Sergio Hernandez on court five by a score of 6-3, 6-4, as Louisville tied it up, 2-2.
Alan Rubio battled hard on court two and was able to get the win over Josh Howard-Tripp by a score of 6-3, 6-4, giving UCF a slight edge, 3-2.
Cooper White put up a fight on court six but fell to David Mizrahi shortly after by a 6-4, 7-5 decision, which tied the match up again, three all.
All eyes turned to court one as Trey Hilderbrand faced Etienne Donnet. After dropping the first set, 2-6, Hilderbrand came back big, taking the second, 6-2, and forcing a third. Hilderbrand never gave up and won the third set, 6-3, clinching the match for the Knights.
"It feels really good to get the clincher for the team," Trey Hilderbrand said, "He was playing really well on my court, and I think everybody had tough matches on their courts. I am happy I was able to play through it and play good tennis in the end."
UP NEXT
The Knights will play in the championship match of the ITA Kickoff tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. at USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida against the winner of No. 14 Stanford and Tulane.
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