ORLANDO - An inaugural trip to the NCAA Super Regionals from the UCF men’s tennis program landed the squad at No. 16 in the final ITA rankings of the season, marking the second-best placement for the Knights to conclude a campaign.
Individually, Yassine Dlimi’s brilliant displays across the latter half of the year propelled the junior to his best-career ranking to date of No. 52. His fellow countryman Mehdi Benchakroun bumped up a spot to No. 83, while the French tandem of Liam Branger and Paul Colin checked in at No. 50 in the doubles edition.
A difficult non-conference schedule that included a trip to the ITA Indoor Championships, along with a tricky Big 12 slate, saw UCF face five squads ranked among the top 15. Boasting an impressive 4-5 clip against the nation’s best, head coach Lloyd Bruce-Burgess and his squad surpassed expectations with a fourth-place finish in the conference and a trip to the tournament semifinals after defeating No. 2 TCU.
The Knights trailed only the aforementioned Horned Frogs and No. 11 Arizona, with whom UCF went 2-1 against throughout the season, in the Big 12.