WACO, Texas – The No. 9 men’s tennis dropped the final match of the ITA National Indoors event to the No. 17 LSU Tigers, 4-0 on Sunday evening at the Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center.
The Tigers set the tone early in doubles, claiming courts one and three by identical 6-2 scores. Yassine Dlimi and Paul Colin couldn’t recover from an early deficit against Andrej Loncarevic and Sasa Markovic, while Luca Hotze and Nicolas Oliveira met the same result on court three.
Court two went unfinished, with UCF’s duo of Wissam Abderrahman and Mehdi Benchakroun trailing when LSU secured the opening point.
Singles play began with competitive exchanges across the board, but LSU steadily tightened control. No. 108 Abderrahman was the first Knight to fall, dropping his court-two match 6-3, 6-4 against No. 110 Erik Arutiunian. Not long after, freshman Pedro Rodrigues suffered his first loss of the season, 6–2, 6-3.
The match was clinched on court one, where No. 64 Dlimi couldn’t erase the gap against Olaf Pieczkowski, falling 6-3, 6-3.
Benchakroun and Clement Lemire were both battling in third sets, and Oliveira was locked in a second-set tiebreak when play was halted.
UP NEXT
The Black and Gold will return home to the courts at the USTA National Campus with two matches this weekend. The Knights will take on ranked competition on Friday evening against No. 16 Clemson then will face UNCW on Sunday afternoon.
Singles Results
- Olaf Pieczkowski (LSU) def. No. 64 Yassine Dlimi (UCF): 6-3, 6-3
- No. 110 Erik Arutiunian (LSU) def. No. 108 Wissam Abderrahman (UCF): 6-3, 6-4
- Mehdi Benchakroun (UCF) vs. Enzo Kohlmann (LSU): 6-3, 3-6, unfinished
- Matias Ponce De Leon (LSU) def. Pedro Rodrigues (UCF): 6-2, 6-3
- Sasa Markovic (LSU) vs. Nicolas Oliveira (UCF): 6-3, 6-6, unfinished
- Clement Lemire (UCF) vs. Rudy Ceccon (LSU): 2-6, 6-3, 1-1, unfinished
Doubles Results
- Andrej Loncarevic/Sasa Markovic (LSU) def. Yassine Dlimi/Paul Colin (UCF): 6-2
- No. 81 Matias Ponce De Leon/Erik Arutiunian (LSU) vs. Wissam Abderrahman/Mehdi Benchakroun (UCF): 5-3, unfinished
- Rudy Ceccon/Enzo Kohlmann (LSU) def. Luca Hotze/Nicolas Oliveira (UCF): 6-2
ABOUT UCF ATHLETICS
UCF is a proud member of the Big 12 Conference. Our mission is to positively transform the lives of our students academically, athletically, and personally through a nationally competitive intercollegiate athletics program that enhances the reputation and visibility of the University. We strive to be Florida's preeminent athletic program, representing UCF and our community with distinction on the national stage as "Orlando's Hometown Team". To learn more about UCF and Athletics, please visit our websites at www.ucf.edu and www.ucfknights.com.