TAMPA- The University of South Florida men's tennis team returned to action on Sunday when the Bulls traveled to Miami to take on the Miami Hurricanes. No. 50 USF fell to No. 36 Miami 4-3.
The day started out with doubles competition. Sophomore Wael Kilani and sophomore Yannick Yoshizawa competed against Keith Crowley and Hector Nieto in the flight two doubles spot. Kilani and Yoshizawa fell to Crowley and Nieto 8-4.
Junior Romain Deridder and freshman Peter Frank picked up a doubles win for USF in their flight three doubles match against Ignacio Taboada and Barnabas Carrega. Both teams managed to keep things close throughout the match and in the end Deridder and Frank picked up the 8-6 win over Taboada and Carrega.
With each team having won one doubles match the winner of the flight one doubles match would decide who would have the 1-0 advantage heading into singles matches. Senior Thomas Estrada and freshman Peter competed against Christian Blocker and David Simon in the flight one doubles spot. Both teams gave it all they had in this match but it was Blocker and Simon who walked away with the 9-7 win which gave the Hurricanes the 1-0 lead heading into singles matches.
Sophomore Mark Oljaca started out singles competition for the Bulls on Sunday against Simon in the flight five singles spot. Oljaca fell to Simon in two sets 6-3, 6-2.
Frank competed against Crowley in the flight three singles spot. Crowley downed Frank in two sets 6-2, 6-2 which gave Miami a 3-0 lead over the Bulls.
Junior Jamal Adderley competed against Blocker in the flight two singles spot on Sunday. The two players kept things close in the first set and Blocker picked up the first set 7-5. Blocker went on to win the second set 6-3 and with the win Miami earned the fourth and final point that they needed to pick up the win over USF.
Deridder picked up the Bulls first point of the day in his flight four singles match against Taboada. After losing the first set 6-4, Deridder would come back and win the second set 6-4 which sent the match into a tiebreaker set. In the tiebreaker set Deridder beat Taboada 11-9.
Freshman Juan Carlos Acuna Gerard earned USF's second win of the day in his flight six singles match against Santiago Nieto. Gerard lost the first set 6-2 but came back in the second set and won it 6-4. In the third set Gerard would top Nieto 6-1.
No.59 Kilani would pick up the Bulls third and final point of the day in his flight one singles match against No. 90 Carl Sundberg. Kilani fell to Sundberg in the first set 6-2 but came back in the second set and won it 6-3 which sent the match into a third set. Kilani would beat Sundberg in the third set 6-2.
The Bulls will be back in action on Tuesday, March 9, when they travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to take on LSU.
