LOUISVILLE, Ky. (April 9, 2007) ? The University of South Florida men's tennis team closed its regular season Sat., April 7 with a neutral-site loss to No. 31 Virginia Commonwealth.
The Bulls lone point was earned at the No. 2 singles spot where Mahmoud Hamed defeated VCU's Emil Lindgren in three sets to earn his team-leading 13th victory of the dual season.
The Rams (15-7) secured the doubles point by sweeping all three matches, something that the Bulls were able to do to opponents six times this season, including a stretch of five-out-of-six matches.
VCU then went on to take five more singles matches, despite the excellent play of Thomas Estrada at No. 4. Every set of his match against Sebastien Deridder went to a tie-break, with Deridder being forced to come back after dropping the first set.
“This was probably the best tennis I've seen Thomas play all year,” said head coach Don Barr. “He fought so hard.”
Estrada closed out the regular season following Hamed in wins with 12 total. Freshman Diego Toledo ends his year with 10 victories in limited playing time.
The loss gives the Bulls a 7-13 record on the year, but sets them up nicely for the BIG EAST Championships, which the team will host on April 20-22. With a 2-1 conference record, USF stands in good shape to earn a No. 3 seed.
The BIG EAST Championships will take place on the USF campus for the third consecutive year, with men's action beginning Fri., April 20 at 9 a.m. The Bulls claimed third place in the league last year, with wins over St. John's and Marquette.
No. 31 VCU 6, USF 1
Doubles
1) Le Cloerec/Olsak (VCU) def. Hamed/Estrada (USF) 8-4
2) Lindgren/Ripoll (VCU) def. Hipp/Daudt) (USF) 8-1
3) Arumi/Deridder (VCU) def. Jaeger/Svigelj (USF) 8-5
Singles
1) Petr Olsak (VCU) def. Ales Svigelj (USF) 6-4, 6-4
2) Mahmoud Hamed (USF) def. Emil Lindgren (VCU) 6-7(3), 7-5, 1-0(6)
3) Damien Lacombe (VCU) def. Diego Toledo (USF) 6-2, 6-2
4) Sebastien Deridder (VCU) def. Thomas Estrada (USF) 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 1-0(10)
5) Georges-Alexandre Israel (VCU) def. Henning Hip (USF) 6-4, 6-1
6) Sebastian Ripoll (VCU) def. Mark Gattiker (USF) 6-4, 6-3
USF 7-13 VCU: 15-7
