ORLANDO, Fla. – The UCF men's tennis team dominated the doubleheader with a pair of wins over North Florida, 4-1, and Stetson, 4-0, on Saturday, March 5, at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.
The Knights opened the day against North Florida where the Ospreys came out and clinched the doubles point. No. 56 Trey Hilderbrand and Cooper White fell 2-6 to Matt Carroll and Nilo Duarte on court two and No. 37 Lleyton Cronje and Bogdan Pavel dropped their match to Jorge Nunez and Jonas Hartenstein, 4-6, on court one.
On court three, JC Roddick and Alan Rubio were strong from the start and jumped out to a 5-1 lead over Rodrigo Crespo and PJ Kotan before the match went unfinished at 5-3.
But the Knights turned it around in singles action as Lleyton Cronje shifted momentum with a 6-3, 6-2 win on court one over Jonas Hartenstein to tie the match at one all.
Alan Rubio followed suit as he defeated Jorge Nunez by a score of 6-2, 6-4 on court four to take the 2-1 lead.
Then on court five, JC Roddick had a big second set to take down Breno Marques in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, giving the Knights a 3-1 lead.
With three courts remaining and in need of only one, all the Knights battled in third sets. Court two and three were back and forth in a third-set tiebreaker but Bogdan Pavel was able to finish first and clinch the match with a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(3) win on court three over Matt Carroll.
No. 61 Trey Hilderbrand was also in a third-set tiebreaker against Nilo Duarte on court two, but went unfinished at 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-6(4-6).
Cooper White's match also went unfinished on court six against Joe Ellis, 7-5, 4-6, 2-1.
UCF came back to take on Stetson in the evening and did so in sweeping fashion.
The Knights turned it around from the morning to clinch the doubles point as Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel defeated Ervin Eminefendic and Sven Thiergard with a quick 6-1 decision while on court three, JC Roddick and Alan Rubio finished with a 6-2 victory over Diogo Marques and Sami Ozzor.
Court two went unfinished as Lleyton Cronje and Cooper White were facing Josh Laka and Tim Gennes, 2-4, to lead 1-0 in the match.
In singles, the Knights kept it going and Alan Rubio earned another win on court four with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Fabian Penzkofer.
Not long after Lleyton Cronje defeated Diogo Marques by a score of 6-4, 6-1 on court one and the Knights led 3-0.
Seconds later, Bogdan Pavel clinched the match again for the Knights with a 6-2, 6-3 decision on court three over Ervin Eminefendic and UCF earned the sweep.
Three matches remained but went unfinished. No. 61 Trey Hilderbrand was battling Tristan Dumas on court one with a score of 4-6, 2-3 while JC Roddick was leading big over Tim Gennes, 6-2, 5-1 on court five and Cooper White was putting pressure on Sami Ozzor, 7-5, 0-1.
UP NEXT
The Knights will be back at home next week for a three-match week beginning with Nebraska on Wednesday, March 16, then Illinois on Friday, March 18, and Florida Atlantic on Sunday, March 20.
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