NCAA Round Two Information
When: Sunday, May 15, 1 p.m.
Where: Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex – Gainseville, Fla.
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. (May 14, 2016) – The University of South Florida men's tennis team advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament by defeating No. 71 St. John's, 4-0, Saturday morning at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex.
The No. 17 Bulls (21-8) started the morning by taking the doubles point. First to strike for the USF was the duo of Dominic Cotrone (Bradenton, Fla.) and Peter Bertran (Santiago, Dominican Republic) on court two. After securing a few break points early in the match, the tandem would cruise to a 6-1 win.
Needing one more match to clinch the doubles point, the pairing of Roberto Cid (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) and Ignacio Gonzalez-Muniz (Gijon Asturas, Spain) would come up clutch for the Bulls. With the match tied 1-1, Cid and Gonzalez-Muniz earned a crucial break point to go up 2-1. From there, they would hold serve to take the match 6-4.
“I thought we played well in doubles, especially at court two,” said head coach Matt Hill. “Overall it was a good start, we know they are a good team in doubles and singles, so we knew it was going to be a tough test in the beginning.”
As play moved into singles, No. 47 Cotrone continued to lead the way for USF. The senior was locked in from the start, hitting beautiful shots all day. After taking the first set, Cotrone broke serve late in the second set to take a 6-1, 6-4 win on court three for the Bulls.
With USF holding a 2-0 lead, Bertran would strike next on court four. The sophomore broke serve late in the second set and served to win 6-2, 7-5. Winner of his last seven matches, Bertran now sits at 17-5 in singles play this season.
St. John's (21-6) would not go down without a fight as three of the four remaining singles matches went to third sets. The Bulls responded with the resiliency they have showed all season.
Playing on court two, junior Sasha Gozun (Orhei, Moldova) found himself down early after dropping the first set. Gozun fought back to win a tight second set and send the match to a deciding third set. With the match on the line, the junior broke serve early in the set then fired an ace on his final shot to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
“We knew St. John's would compete, they beat some great teams this year, so we expected that,” said Hill. “It's great to see our guys, even when they are down, still remain poised and continue with their game plans. Everyone was on track when we finished so we felt really good about it, even considering the swings.”
The win over St. John's gives USF its third consecutive appearance in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Up next for the Bulls in round two is No. 9 Florida. The Gators advanced with a 4-0 over the University of North Florida.
The round two match against Florida will be played Sunday, May, 15 at 1 p.m. at Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex. The last time the two teams met was back in 2014 in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Florida got the best of the Bulls that day as they took a 4-0 victory.
“We need to continue to trust our game, we've been doing a lot of really good things in training the last few weeks and we have been looking really good,” said Hill “We just need to keep putting it together, the first round is always a little rough, having not competed for three weeks, so hopefully we got that out of our system today and we look forward to playing a good team tomorrow.”
For more information on the USF men's tennis team make sure to check out GoUSFBulls.com and follow @USFBullsMTennis on Twitter.
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