TAMPA - The University of South Florida men's tennis team returned to action on Friday when the Bulls traveled to Alabama, to take on the Auburn Tigers. The Bulls lost to the Tigers 4-1.
Senior Thomas Estrada and junior Jamal Adderley started things out for the Bulls with their No. 1 doubles match against the No. 8 ranked duo of Tim Puetz and Alex Stamchev. Estrada and Adderley fell to Puetz and Stamchev 8-3.
Sophomores Wael Kilani and Yannick Yoshizawa picked up the Bulls first win of the day in their No. 2 doubles match against Andreas Mies and Michel Monterio. Kilani and Yoshizawa topped Mies and Monterio 8-6.
Freshman Juan Carlos Acuna Gerard and sophomore Mark Oljaca teamed up together to take on Tim Hewitt and Lucas Lopasso in the No. 3 doubles position. The game was tied at 4-4 before Gerard and Oljaca went on to win the next four games to give them the 8-4 victory over Hewitt and Lopasso.
With the win, the Bulls held the 1-0 advantage heading into singles competition.
Oljaca started out singles competition for USF with his No. 4 singles match against Lucas Lopasso. Oljaca fell to Lopasso in two straight sets 6-0, 6-2, and tying things up between the two teams at one-all.
Gerard took on Mies in the No. 5 singles position. Gerard fell to Mies in the first set, 6-1. In the second set things were tied at 4-4 before Mies would go on to win the next two games to give him the 6-4 second set victory. With the win, the Tigers now led 2-1.
Adderley competed against Hewitt in the No. 2 singles position, losing to Hewitt 6-2, 6-2, as Auburn took a commanding 3-1 lead over the Bulls.
Kilani competed in the No. 1 singles position for USF against No. 23 Puetz. Puetz downed Kilani in two straight sets 6-3, 6-1 which gave Auburn the fourth and final point they needed to pick up the win over USF.
Junior Romain Deridder competed against No. 93 Stamchev in the No. 3 singles position. Deridder fell to Stamchev 6-0 in the first set and things were tied 5-5 in the second set before the match was ended.
Yoshizawa then took on Oliver Strecker in the No. 6 singles position. It was tied 6-6 in the first set and Strecker won the next game to give him the 7-6 first set victory. Yoshizawa was up 2-0 in the second set before the match was ended.
USF will be back in action on Friday, April 2, when they travel to Kentucky, to take on BIG EAST opponent Louisville. That match is set to start at 3 p.m. The Bulls will then stay in Louisville to take on Virginia Commonwealth University on Saturday, April 3.
