TAMPA- The University of South Florida men's tennis team fell to No .17 Pepperdine 4-0 on Saturday in its first day at the ITA 2nd Annual Division I Men's Kick-Off Weekend.
Senior Thomas Estrada and freshman Peter Frank teamed up together to take on Bassam Beidas in the flight one doubles spot. Estrada and Frank fell to Beidas and Clarke 8-2.
Sophomore Mark Oljaca and junior Jamal Adderley competed in doubles action on Saturday in their flight three doubles match against Sebastian Fanselow and Daniel Moss. Both teams managed to keep things close throughout the match but in the end Oljaca and Adderley would get topped by Fanselow and Moss 8-5. This gave Pepperdine the 1-0 lead heading into the singles matches.
Sophomore Wael Kilani and sophomore Yannick Yoshizawa were the third doubles team competing for the Bulls on Saturday. Kilani and Yoshizawa went up against Alex Llompart and Finn Tearney in the flight two doubles spot. Kilani and Yoshizawa were trailing Llompart and Tearney 7-6 but the match went unfinished after Pepperdine picked up the doubles point.
Oljaca competed in singles action on Saturday in his flight four singles match against Fanselow. Oljaca fell to Fanselow in two sets 6-4, 6-1.
Yoshizawa also competed in singles action for the Bulls in his flight five singles match against Tearney. Tearney beat Yoshizawa in two sets 6-4, 6-3.
Adderley competed in the flight one singles spot on Saturday against Beidas. Adderley was topped by Beidas 6-3, 6-4. That gave Pepperdine the fourth and final point they needed to pick up the win over the Bulls.
Sophomore Alex Pukal flight six singles match against Moss went unfinished. Pukal had lost the first set 7-6 (7-3) and was down 1-0 in the second set before the match was ended.
Kilani competed in the flight two singles spot against Mousheg Hovhannisyan. Kilani lost the first set 7-5 and came back in the second set and won it 6-0. The two players were tied 1-1 in the third set when the match was ended.
Frank also competed in singles action in his flight three singles match against Llompart. Frank lost the first set 6-3 and was down in the second set when the match was ended. With the loss the Bulls fall to 1-2 on the season.
The Bulls will be back in action on Sunday when they compete in their second and final day at the ITA 2nd Annual Division I Men's Kick-Off Weekend. The Bulls will take on either No. 4 UCLA or No. 42 Hawaii with competition starting at 10 a.m.
