TAMPA, Fla. (April 22, 2007) ? With a 4-0 shutout of No. 5 seed St. John's, the University of South Florida men's tennis team captured third place for the second consecutive year at the BIG EAST Championships.
The men's squad, seeded third at the beginning of the tournament, used the doubles point and three singles wins from the middle of the lineup to secure the bronze finish.
“We played pretty well today, the doubles point was big, they came out right away after us,” said head coach Don Barr. “There was pride involved. Even though the match was for third and fourth place, we wanted to keep fighting to have that third place finish.”
The Bulls got a good start on achieving that goal with doubles wins by No. 1 team, Mahmoud Hamed and Thomas Estrada and No. 3 tandem, Marc Jaeger and Ales Svigelj.
Carrying the doubles point into singles play, Hamed and Estrada continued the dominant play they displayed all season long. Hamed took care of the Red Storm's Alex Svetlakov 6-4, 6-2 on court three and Estrada dispatched Martin Kosut 6-1, 6-3 at the fifth spot.
Freshman Diego Toledo contributed the final point with a 6-2, 6-0 defeat of SJU's Tom Green at No. 4.
“This was good experience for such a young team,” Barr continued. “I thought we played well going into the doubles point and then coming back out strong, I thought we did and excellent job.”
No. 1 seed Notre Dame avenged its loss to No. 2 Louisville last year, upending the Cardinals 4-0 to capture the third title in the last four years for the Irish.
USF hosted the BIG EAST Championships for the third year in a row.
BIG EAST Championships - No. 3 USF 4, No. 5 St. John's 0
Doubles
1) Hamed/Estrada (USF) def. Svetlakov/Green (SJU) 8-5
2) Desmarteaux/Kosut (SJU) def. Hipp/Daudt (USF) 8-6
3) Jaeger/Svigelj (USF) def. Vlasenko/Halim (SJU) 8-1
Singles:
1) Louis Desmarteaux (SJU) led Ales Svigelj (USF) 6-4, 3-4 DNF
2) Marc Jaeger (USF) led Artem Vlasenko (SJU) 6-4, 0-1
3) Mahmoud Hamed (USF) def. Alex Svetlakov (SK JU) 6-4, 6-2
4) Diego Toledo (USF) def. Tom Green (SJU) 6-2, 6-0
5) Thomas Estrada (USF) def. Martin Kosut (SJU) 6-1, 6-3
6) Henning Hipp (USF) led Claudio Halim (SJU) 7-5, 1-2
