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No. 2 Auburn 4, No. 3 USF 0
2009 NCAA Men's Tennis Championship-First Round
Tallahassee, Fla.
10 a.m., May 8, 2009 |
Singles No. 1: #38 Alexey Tsyenov (AUB) vs. #46 Lucas Jovita (USF) DNF 3-6, 5-5 No. 2: #108 Tim Puetz (AUB) vs. #123 Wael Kilani (USF) DNF 4-6, 6-2, 1-4 No. 3: Lukas Marsoun (AUB) def. Mahmoud Hamed (USF) 6-4, 7-6(4) No. 4: Alex Stamchev (AUB) def. Jamal Adderley (USF) 6-3, 6-3 No. 5: Milan Krnjetin (AUB) vs. Romain Deridder (USF) 5-7, 5-4 No. 6: Alex Petropoulos (AUB) def. Thomas Estrada (USF) 6-4, 6-3 Order of finish: 4, 6, 3* Doubles No. 1: #10 Tsyenov/Puetz (AUB) def. #46 Jovita/Estrada (USF) 8-1 No. 2: Marsoun/Stamchev (AUB) def. Hamed/Adderley (USF) 8-6 No. 3: Krnjetin/Monteiro (AUB) vs. Kilani/Yannick Yoshizawa (USF) DNF 5-6 Order of finish: 1, 2* | | |
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Looking to avenge an earlyseason 4-1 loss, the University of South Florida men's tennis drew No. 19 Auburn in the first round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament at Scott Speicher Tennis Center on the Campus of Florida State University.
The third seeded “Green & Gold” gave a valiant effort but could not topple the Tigers' falling 4-0. The loss ends the Bulls NCAA Tournament and 2009 season.
“I think we had a pretty good season. Winning the BIG EAST was tough and that was a great honor for us,” said Bulls head coach Don Barr. “We have been a little banged up this year, but Eric Shore [Auburn] is a good coach and coaches a tough team. They are always tough whenever we play them.”
Auburn started out faste and aggressive taking early leads in all three doubles matches. However the freshman doubles duo of Wael Kilani and Yannick Yoshizawa battled back to take control of the match by breaking Auburn's serve. The Bulls No. 1 doubles of sophomore Lucas Jovita and junior Thomas Estrada could not do the same as they fell 8-1 to the No.10 doubles team in the country of Alexey Tsyenov and Tim Puetz.
With Auburn one win away from taking the doubles point and Kilani and Yoshizawa holding a lead, the match came down to USF's No. 2 doubles pairing of Sophomore Jamal Adderley and senior Mahmoud Hamed. The duos charge came up short as they fell,8-6. The two took a 5-4 lead, but could not hold off Lukas Marsoun and Alex Stamchev.
By losing the doubles point, the Bulls found themselves in a 1-0 hole. That being said, the Bulls came out much stronger than they did in doubles competition but could only muster victories in three first sets as Jovita, Kilani and sophomore Romain Deridder grinded out marathon first set wins.
Needing four wins to advance to the second round the Bulls could not manage comebacks in the other three sets. Auburn pushed their lead to 2-0 as Stamchev dropped Adderley, 6-3, 6-3 in straight sets. Then the Tigers' magic number was one as Estrada fell in a seesaw match at No. 6.
“We were very short, I was hoping it would go three sets, and it could have been another hour out there. We might have been able to take it to them,” Barr added.
With USF in control of the No. 1, 2, and 5 positions, attention turned to the match up on court three as Hamed was trying to force a third set. Lukas Marsoun took the first set, 6-4, but Hamed battled back and was desperately trying to keep the team's hopes alive.
With the score 5-4, Hamed was unable to break Marsoun's serve and the two ultimaly went to a tie break. Hamed jumped out to 3-0 lead in the tiebreak but Marsoun came back to take a 5-3 and than held on to a 7-4 lead clinching the match and sending the Tiger's into tomorrow's second round match against the winner of No. 1 Florida State and No. 4 Jacksonville State.
With the loss, the Bulls end the season 14-9 overall in dual matches and 5-2 in BIG EAST Conference. The Bulls won the BIG EAST Tennis Championship - the first in program history - on their home courts in late April.
Coach Barr will now look to build off this year and continue to establish USF as one of the best programs in the country.
“We are young, and I had five new guys come in this year. (This year) was a learning experience, and they know more of what to handle and what to expect. I am looking for us to have a much stronger team next year from all this experience in 2008-09."
