MEMPHIS, Tenn. (April 17, 2016) – The University of South Florida men's tennis team shut out No. 38 Memphis, 4-0, on Sunday afternoon at The Racquet Club of Memphis in Tennessee. In the final match of the regular season, USF (17-8, 4-1) earned its fourth conference win. The 19th-ranked Bulls have shutout back-to-back AAC opponents.
No. 3 Roberto Cid (20-2) won his seventh straight match, and reached the 20-win plateau for the second time in his career. In the premier position, Cid grinded his way through the first two sets before ultimately dominating the third set, 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 over No. 88 Andrew Watson. It was his ninth three-set victory of the season. Prior to this year, he had accomplished the hard-fought task 10 times.
No. 44 Dominic Cotrone (10-6) completed his first regular season for the Bulls, winning in straight sets, three matches in a row. The senior from Bradenton won the first set, 7-5. In the second set, he controlled court three with a 6-1 result.
Sasha Gozun won his 13th match of the year, tying the second most wins by an individual this season. On court two, Gozun worked his way through three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 over No. 67 Ryan Peniston. Five of six matches went into a third set, while USF led in two of three suspended matches. Peter Bertran was on the brink of clinching the match for the Bulls on court four, 4-6, 7-6, 5-2. Vadym Kalyuzhnyy forced a clinching game, 6-2, 4-6, 6-5, on court five.
The Bulls claimed the doubles point over the Tigers with 6-2 victories on courts two and three. Cid and Ignacio Gonzalez-Muniz took over court three to extend their win streak to six matches. Cotrone and Bertran, on court two, capped off their regular season with back-to-back wins in doubles competition.
USF will travel to Memphis to defend its title at the American Athletic Conference Tournament on April 20-24. The Bulls have won the title in back-to-back seasons.
For more information on the USF men's tennis program, follow @USFBullsMTennis on Twitter.
