ORLANDO - In its first Big 12 contest of the campaign, the red-hot UCF men’s tennis team topped Texas Tech in a brilliant 4-1 display at the USTA National Campus.
Needing to respond after dropping the doubles point, the ‘Nauts took the opening set on each court before finishing off the Red Raiders with a quartet of commanding victories to move to 15-2 on the season and a perfect 1-0 in conference play.
The Knights stumbled out of the gates as their doubles lineup saw a pair of changes, with Clement Lemire slotting in beside Paul Colin on court two, in turn, seeing Mehdi Benchakroun and Wissam Abderrahman shifting to the front court.
Texas Tech capitalized on the inexperienced tandem on court two, jumping out to an early lead over the Frenchmen Colin and Lemire before taking the bout 6-3. While a sudden surge from UCF, breaking the Red Raiders on courts one and three, the visitors fended off the charge with a 6-4 triumph on one, handing Abderrahman and Benchakroun their first defeat in five matches.
Despite Texas Tech securing the match's first point, Oliveira and Hotze had grown a 6-5 lead on court three, combatting a sluggish start.
Striving for a quick spark in singles, the Knights left no room for the visitors to expand upon their lead, taking the opening sets on all six courts. As the momentum shifted, the points began to fall for UCF, first on court three.
Days after surpassing 100 career singles and doubles wins at UCF, Benchakroun picked up right where he left off. The 2025 All-Big 12 Team honoree showed his prowess and experience with a commanding 6-0, 6-3 victory over Ludovi Vaccari, for his seventh win of the season.
The first of three dominoes to fall across the span of just five minutes, Benchakroun’s triumph preceded a pair of swift wins from Frenchmen Colin and Lemire to avenge their doubles defeat.
On court four, the former controlled the bout from start to finish opposite Felipe Pagnacco, securing his team-leading 11th win in straight sets, 6-0, 6-2. Seconds later, Lemire finished off his court-six foe Sebastian Abboud, in another commanding 6-3, 6-0, win for the ‘Nauts.
Despite flipping the script and taking a 3-1 advantage, the remaining three courts produced back-and-forth affairs. Abderrahman and Oliveira each dropped their second sets to force a winner-take-all third, all while Dlimi battled back to force a second-set tiebreak on court one.
Abderrahman proved too much in the third, securing the clincher on court two after pulling away 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, against Tyler Stewart to claim the Big 12 opener for the ‘Nauts.
UP NEXT
UCF will have the weekend off before welcoming BYU and Utah to the USTA National Campus next week. The Knights and Cougars will match up at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
SINGLES RESULTS
DOUBLES RESULTS