No. 67 Men’s Tennis Edged Out by No. 34 UCF, 4-3

Sunday, March 10

Tulsa, Okla.

10:30 a.m.

Tulsa

UCF

Photo by: Dave Crenshaw

No. 67 Men’s Tennis Edged Out by No. 34 UCF, 4-3

3/10/2024 3:57:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score (PDF)Season Results (PDF)

TULSA, Okla. — The 67^th-ranked Tulsa men's tennis team welcomed the No. 34 UCF Knights to the outdoor courts of the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in a Sunday dual match that ended in the Knights' favor, 4-3. Tulsa held a 2-0 lead before UCF came back and took it the distance. The Golden Hurricane fell to 6-9 while the Knights rose to 13-1.

It was a back-and-forth battle for the doubles point as the freshman duo Alex Okonkwo and Victor Tosetto grabbed a 6-3 victory in the No. 3 position before UCF claimed the second position 6-4. It all came down to No.1 Doubles, where both teams fought to a tiebreak set at six games all. No. 55 Pierce Rollins and Timothy Carlsson Seger scored the first point of the tiebreaker and never looked back, cruising to a 7-2 finish to secure the doubles point for TU.

Okonkwo put the Hurricane up 2-0 at the No. 6 position in one of only two singles matches of the day to finish in two sets. In his first set, he led by as many as three game points at 4-1 and 5-2 before closing out at 6-4. Then in the second frame, Okonkwo took advantage of a 3-0 to roll to a 6-3 finish.

The momentum didn't last for Tulsa as UCF rattled off three consecutive wins at the Nos. 1, 3 and 5 positions to take its first lead of the day at 3-2. Senior Thiago Pernas wouldn't let the Knights hold the advantage for long as he grabbed a three-set victory over Lleyton Cronje at No. 2 Singles to knot up the dual at 3-3. After dropping his first set 6-2, he fought through three tie scores in the second set before taking control at 4-3 and finishing on top, 6-4. In the third and final set, neither player led by more than one game point as the match went to a tiebreaker set at 6-6. In the tiebreaker, Cronje led 5-0 before Pernas stormed back to take the tiebreaker 9-7 to improve to 6-4 overall.

The dual match came down to the No. 4 position between TU's Volodymyr Zakharov and UCF's Liam Branger. It would be Branger who would run away with the match after losing the first frame and winning the next two stanzas to seal away the 4-3 match for the Knights.

The action continues for the Tulsa men as the Hurricane will head to Stillwater, Okla., for a pair of matches against the No. 26 Oklahoma State Cowboys on Tuesday, March 12, and the No. 11 Illinois Fighting Illini, on Thursday, March 14. Tulsa's in-state showdown with OSU begins at 5 p.m., while the Hurricane's match with Illinois starts at 3 p.m.

Singles
1. Yassine Dlimi (UCF) def. Pierce Rollins (TLS) 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3
2. Thiago Pernas (TLS) def. Lleyton Cronje (UCF) 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7)
3. Francisco Llanes (UCF) def. Timothy Carlsson Seger (TLS) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
4. Liam Branger (UCF) def. Volodymyr Zakharov (TLS) 4-6, 7-5, 6-4
5. Mehdi Benchakroun (UCF) def. Victor Tosetto (TLS) 6-3, 7-5
6. Alex Okonkwo (TLS) def. Paul Colin (UCF) 6-4, 6-3

Doubles
1. #55 Pierce Rollins/Timothy Carlsson Seger (TLS) def. Yassine Dlimi/Paul Colin (UCF) 7-6 (7-2)
2. Liam Branger/Lleyton Cronje (UCF) def. Callum Gale/Timothy Seger (TLS) 6-4
3. Alex Okonkwo/Victor Tosetto (TLS) def. Santiago Giamichelle/Francisco Llanes (UCF) 6-3

Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (6,5,3,1,2,4)