AUSTIN, Texas-The University of South Florida men's tennis team got back on track with a 5-2 victory as they took care of the Gauchos of UC- Santa Barbara in the back draw of the NCAA National Indoor Tournament at the University of Texas' Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
The Bulls didn't make it easy on themselves as they dropped two of the three doubles points giving the Gauchos an early 1-0 lead. No. 15 ranked combination of Lucas Jovita and Thomas Estrada continued to struggle dropping an 8-3 decision to Philip Therp and Josh Finkelstein and the No. 58 connection of Romain Deridder and Wael Kilani fell to Josh Finkelstein and Alex Konigsfeldt, 8-3 .
The Bulls lone doubles victory would came from senior Mahmoud Hamed and freshman Yannick Yoshizawa outdueled Caledonia and Chavez Goggin, 8-5.
Needing to take four of the six singles matches and they would do that and more by taking five singles matches and it would start with Bulls leaders, Mahmoud Hamed, Thomas Estrada and Lucas Jovita.
The No. 27 Jovita would get the Bulls going by disposing of the Philip Therp, 6-2, 6-4, and then Hamed quickly took care Alex Konigsfeldt , 6-2, 6-1 in the No. 2 position. Thomas Estrada continued his strong play as the junior from Columbia took care of Chavez Goggin, 4-6, 6-3, 10-2.
Wael Kilani defeated Max Taylor, 6-0, 6-1 and Jamal Adderley was victorious over Scott Hohenstein. Thomas Estrada continued his strong play as the junior from Columbia took care of Chavez Goggin, 4-6, 6-3, 10-2.
With the win, the Bulls, ranked No. 28 in latest ITA rankings, improve to 2-1 in the young season and will be back in action as they head further west as for a pair of dual matches in Tuscon. The Bulls will take on Arizona on Friday, February 6 and then will take on St. Mary's University. Both matches are slated to begin at 4 p.m. Eastern.
No. 28 USF 5, UCSB 2
February 1, 2007
Texas' Penick-Allison Tennis Center.
Doubles
1. Therp/Hohenstein def. Jovita/ Estrada (USF) def. 8-3
2. Finkelstein/Konigsfeldt def. Kilani/DeRidder (USF) - 8-5
3. Yoshizawa/Hamed (USF) def. Caledonia/Chavez Goggin - 8-5
Singles
1 Lucas Jovita (USF) def. Philip Therp 6-2, 6-4
2. Mahmoud Hamed (USF) def. Alex Konigsfeldt - 6-2, 6-1
3. Wael Kilani (USF) def. Max Taylor 6-0, 6-1
4. Jamal Adderley (USF) def. Scott Hohenstein - 7-5, 6-3
5. Thomas Estrada def. Chavez Goggin 4-6, 6-3, (10-2)
6. Josh Finkelstein def. Yannick Yoshizawa (USF) - 6-7, 7-6, (13-11
