USF Athletics

No. 29 Bulls Fall to Rival No. 11 UCF in Championship Round, 0-4

April 24, 2021

Lake Nona, Fla., April 24, 2021 – Since the inception of the American Athletic Conference, USF fell in just its second ever conference championship loss, 4-0, to top-seeded UCF on Saturday. 
 
Despite valiant efforts on all courts, the Bulls suffered a sweep after losing the doubles point and three singles courts. USF has won five of the past six men's tennis conference championships.
 
USF's Rithvik Bollipalli (Hyderabad, India) and Manuel Goncalves (Porto, Portugal) earned the lone doubles point on court two over UCF's Gabriel Decamps and Juan Pablo Mazzuchi, 6-3.
 
The No. 11 Knights secured three consecutive singles courts after Mikhail Sokolovskiy defeated Goncalves, 2-6, 0-6; No. 90 Juan Pablo Mazzuchi bested Antonio Muniz-Hidalgo (Barcelona, Spain), 2-6, 2-6; and Trey Hilderbrand beat Sergio Gomez-Montesa (Valencia, Spain), 3-6, 4-6. Senior Pierre Luquet (Draguignan, France) dropped his first set to Kento Yamada, 2-6 but rallied in the second set to gain the 4-1 lead before his match went unfinished.
 
Quotable
Head coach Ashley Fisher on today's loss...
"Credit to UCF for having a terrific season and out playing us today. They deserved the win and title. We could have done a few things better that we will learn from. Our program is in a great position and primed for a run in the NCAA tournament. I'm very proud of what we have done so far this year but there is more to do."
 
Up Next
The Bulls await their seeding for the NCAA Tournament. The schedule is set to release on May 3 at 6:30 p.m.
 
About Men's Tennis
Be sure to follow USF men's tennis on social media (Twitter / Facebook / Instagram) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information.?Head coach?Ashley Fisher?will begin his fifth year at the helm of the program for the 2021 season.
– #GoBulls –