ORLANDO – The UCF men’s tennis team continued its inaugural fall campaign as a member of the Big 12, hosting their annual Fall Sizzler. Sophomore Paul Colin made it to the singles finals for the second straight tournament, this time closing it out with a win.
Colin made it through the first round following a strong performance against Patrick Kotan from UNF. He was then to take on fourth seeded Santiago Giamichelle and after dropping the first set, Colin came back to take the next two sets 6-4, 6-0. Colin's tournament got even better following a victory over South Florida's Bruno Oliveira, 6-4, 7-6, to put himself in the finals.
Set to play in his second straight final this fall, the young sophomore faced the No. 3 seed Rodrigo Crespo of UNF. Colin came out on top in two straight sets wining 6-4, 6-3, in the ‘Singles A’ final.
The Knights had strong performances from two other young players as they made their way into the semifinals in the Singles B matches. Sophomores Emilio Sanchez and Luca Hotze made their way to the semifinals with Sanchez having an opening win against two seed Thomas Pavletkovich-Smith from USF. After dropping the first set, the Spaniard came back to win back-to-back sets 6-1, 6-4.
After falling in the semi-finals, Hotze and Sanchez ended up facing each other Sunday with Sanchez pulling out the win in straight sets, 6-4, 6-0.
After dropping his first match, Fransisco Llanes then faced Kotan on Sunday. Llanes followed as Colin did and beat Kotan in two straight sets 6-2, 7-5 to close out his weekend with a win.