ORLANDO - Do not scratch your eyes, the Knights did it again.
For the second-consecutive year, the 15th-ranked UCF men’s tennis team has advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals. And for the third-straight year, the Knights ended Florida’s season, as the Black and Gold completed a dramatic 4-3 comeback at the USTA National Campus on Saturday night.
Down 3-0, and in the close confines of the indoor facility, the hosts battled back, chipping away at a commanding Gators lead. An era that has been emphasized by reaching new heights under third-year head coach Lloyd Bruce-Burgess and assistant Kareem Allaf, this triumph was their most theatrical.
In their final collegiate campaigns, it was fitting that the comeback was started and ended by four-year Knights, Paul Colin and Yassine Dlimi.
After 4-3 and 4-1 wins over the Gators in the NCAA tournament in the two seasons prior, UCF has secured its place among the last 16 for the second time in program history, doing so in back-to-back seasons.
The Knights suffered an early setback to commence doubles action, as the court-one tandem of Paul Colin and Yassine Dlimi were broken by Florida’s Henry Jefferson and Tanapatt Nirundorn. On court three, the red-hot duo of Luca Hotze and Nicolas Oliveira held it down, narrowly missing multiple break opportunities before holding serve on their end.
With Mehdi Benchakroun back in the lineup, both he and Wissam Abderrahman slotted back into court two, though early breaks saw the Gator pairing of Adhithya Ganesan and Pablo Perez Ramos give the visitors an early advantage with a 6-1 win.
Just as Hotze and Oliveira seemed destined to venture into a tiebreak on three, Florida secured court one and the lead, 6-4.
The Gators’ momentum continued into the beginning of singles play, with Florida capitalizing on multiple early breaks to claim four first sets. However, UCF limited the damage as Colin and Abderrahman prevailed in contested tiebreaks to secure leads on court four and two.
Just as Dlimi leveled the bout on court one, along with Lemire on court six, Florida tallied straight-set victories over Pedro Rodriguez and Benchakroun on courts three and four to build its lead to 3-0.
The energy began to shift after Colin put the finishing touches on a formidable straight-set victory over Jefferson, 7-6(6), 6-3, holding serve and his nerve on court five. UCF continued its hunt of the visitors, inching closer with third-set leads on courts one and six.
In vastly different matches, impact transfers Abderrahman and Lemire put the Knights level, with the former topping Lorenzo Claverie after prevailing in a first-set tiebreak, 7-6(2), 6-4. On six, Lemire found his stride in the second set and flipped the script against Edengren, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.
With the attention turned towards court one, Dlimi fended off two match points and held serve multiple times to force a tiebreak with Ganesan. While the senior was broken to begin the winner-take-all bout, he continuously returned the favor, breaking him multiple times before falling to the ground after claiming the tiebreak and the match, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4).
The Knights will venture to Winston-Salem on Friday, May 8, for a Super Regional bout with No. 4 Wake Forest.