WACO, Texas - In the squad's third-consecutive top-15 matchup, the No. 21 UCF men’s tennis team concluded its inaugural ITA Indoor Championship on Sunday afternoon, falling to No. 9 San Diego.
Having two wins from a pair of top-10 contests under their belt, the Knights (10-3) couldn’t replicate their displays, with the Toreros (9-1) taking control of the bout early on and never wavering their lead.
"Today San Diego were too good, this was a good tournament for us. We plan to be back next year and do even more damage."
Head coach Lloyd Bruce-BurgessThe three-day outing still serves as a testament to the upward trajectory of the program. UCF secured its highest-ranked win in program history against No. 4 Ohio State, along with a tandem of strong efforts against No. 11 Stanford and the Toreros.
Having taken eight of their first 10 doubles points to initiate the season, the Knights dropped the contest's opening point for a third-consecutive match. Opposite one of the strongest lineups in the nation, early breaks from the Toreros on courts two and three proved to be the difference as Liam Branger and Paul Colin were holding their own against the first-ranked tandem of Stian Klaassen and Oliver Tarvett.
On three, Yassine Dlimi and Emilio Sanchez stumbled out of the dates en route to a 6-3 result, mirrored on two as Mehdi Benchakroun and Santiago Giamichelle suffered their second defeat of the season.
Head coach Lloyd Bruce-Burgess made one change ahead of singles, deciding to push Sanchez into the lineup at court six. Needing to get off to an early start, UCF fired off some early breaks, though it couldn’t capitalize as five of six courts ventured into the nine-game mark.
After tallying each opening set, the Toreros quickly collected leads on the back three courts. On one, facing the second-ranked Tarvet, Dlimi went back-and-forth with the Englishmen in the first, falling in line with a trio of performances this weekend against top-25 opponents.
The Moroccan would eventually lose the contested duel, however, as Tarvet clinched the match for the Toreros after wins on courts two and five. Colin dropped his match with 34th-ranked Danilov in straight sets, while Giamichelle was handed his first defeat of the season on five against Berrut.
After losing a 12-match first set, Benchakroun was amidst a 3-3 battle in the second when his match went unfinished. Branger was serving to keep his contest on court four alive as it sat at 3-6, 4-5. Sanchez bounced back to take the Knights’ lone set in the second as he was beginning a rubber set on six against Neo Niedner when the duel was abandoned.
UP NEXT
After a month on the road, UCF will return home to the USTA National Campus, opening a seven-game homestand with matches against UAB (Feb. 21) and Stetson (Feb. 23).
Singles Results
Doubles Results
