ORLANDO, April 21, 2019 – Third-seeded USF continued its dominance of the American Athletic Conference Championship, mounting a dramatic comeback win over top-seeded UCF, 4-3, Sunday at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona to claim the program's fifth title in six seasons in The American. The victory secured an NCAA Tournament bid for the Bulls.
 
Senior Alberto Barroso-Campos (Montijo, Spain), ranked No. 18 nationally, was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player after his defeat of No. 35-ranked Gabriel Decamps, 6-1, 6-4, on court one on Sunday to finish the tournament 3-0 in singles with three straight-set victories. Barroso-Campos is now 20-2 in the season.
 
"This is a very special group of guys", says head coach, Ashley Fisher, "and what's exiting is they just keep growing and getting tougher".
 
With wins over sixth-seeded Memphis, fourth-seeded Temple and the top seed UCF, the Bulls improved to 17-1 in the conference tournament, having reached the championship match every season. This title victory came with a lot of grit, as USF trailed 2-0 early before battling back to win four singles matches.
 
USF clinched its fifth American Athletic Conference title on the racket of freshman Chase Ferguson (Melbourne, Australia) who battled for a three-set victory on court two. Ferguson won the first set vs. Alan Rubio, 6-1, but fell in the second, 4-6, to force a third set with the Bulls leading 3-2 and two close matches in progress. Fighting ferociously, the freshman clinched the win with a 6-1 finish in the third.
 
No. 28-ranked UCF (12-9, 5-0) fought for an early lead in doubles. USF's Ferguson and Sergio Gomez Montesa (Valencia, Spain) won on court three, 6-4, but the Knights answered with a court two victory over Ivan Yatsuk (Minsk, Belarus) and Jakub Wojcik (Delray Beach, Fla.), 7-5. A seven-point tiebreaker was forced on the premiere court where the No. 16-ranked doubles duo of Trey Hilderbrand and Bogdan Pavel beat the No. 87-ranked tandem of Barroso-Campos and Pierre Luquet (Draguignan, France), 7-6 (2), to deliver the Knights the doubles point.
 
No. 46-ranked USF (16-7, 5-1) entered singles action down a point and saw their deficit increase with a court five loss by Gomez Montesa, 6-0, 6-4. Luquet responded with a big win on court three, 6-2, 6-0, to mark his 14th victory of the season and put USF on the board.
 
Trailing in the team battle 2-1, the Bulls kept the momentum going with Barroso-Campos winning court one over No. 35-ranked Gabriel Decamps, 6-1, 6-4, and Wojcik working hard on court four to leave victorious, 7-6 (1), 6-3.
 
The wins put the Bulls up 3-2 with close matches nearing completion on courts two and six. Yatsuk claimed the first set on court six but couldn't hold off Mikhail Sokolovskiy and fell in three sets, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, to bring the championship to its second tie of the day.
 
Meanwhile, Ferguson was closing things out with a dominate third set and the Bulls swarmed the freshman as he clinched the title for USF.
 
Quotable
 
Head coach, Ashley Fisher, on the team winning their fifth Conference title…
"This is one of the toughest teams I've ever seen. We lost the doubles point having 3 match points on two courts against a team that beat us 4-0 a week ago but ended up taking four singles on their home courts. This is a very special group of guys and what's exiting is they just keep growing and getting tougher".
 
Match Results
Doubles
1. #16 Trey Hilderbrand/Bogdan Pavel (UCF) def. #87 A. Barroso-Campos/Pierre Luquet (USF) 7-6 (7-3)
2. Gabriel Decamps/J. Grassi Mazzuchi (UCF) def. Jakub Wojcik/Ivan Yatsuk (USF) 7-5 3. Chase Ferguson/S. Gomez Montesa (USF) def. Alan Rubio/Manoel Alencar (UCF) 6-4
Order of finish: (3,2,1)
 
Singles
1. #18 A. Barroso-Campos (USF) def. #35 Gabriel Decamps (UCF) 6-1, 6-4
 2. Chase Ferguson (USF) def. Alan Rubio (UCF) 6-1, 4-6, 6-1
3. Pierre Luquet (USF) def. Bogdan Pavel (UCF) 6-2, 6-0
4. Jakub Wojcik (USF) def. Trey Hilderbrand (UCF) 7-6 (7-1), 6-3
5. J. Grassi Mazzuchi (UCF) def. S. Gomez Montesa (USF) 6-0, 6-4
6. Mikhail Sokolovskiy (UCF) def. Ivan Yatsuk (USF) 7-5, 3-6, 6-4
Order of finish: (5,3,1,4,6,2)
 
Up Next
The NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships are May 16-25 at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona.
 
 
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