Stellar Singles Play Pushes Tulsa to 4-2 Comeback Win Over South Florida

Sunday, April 7

Tulsa, Okla.

Noon

Tulsa

South Florida

Stellar Singles Play Pushes Tulsa to 4-2 Comeback Win Over South Florida

4/7/2024 4:56:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score (PDF)Season Results (PDF)

TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa men's tennis team secured the 4-2 comeback win over South Florida Sunday afternoon on the outdoor courts of the Michael D. Case Tennis Center, erasing a 2-0 deficit to win its fourth dual match in its last five contests. The Golden Hurricane now stands at 10-12 on the season while the Bulls dropped to 9-15.

In doubles play, Tulsa started with the one-court advantage after freshman duo Alex Okonwko and Victor Tosetto nabbed a 6-4 win in the No. 3 position. The Bulls, however, would respond with a 6-3 decision in the No. 1 spot followed by a 6-2 result in the second slot to seal away the doubles point. Okonkwo and Tosetto improved to 11-3 overall and are 9-1 in their last 10 matches for the Hurricane.

South Florida put some pressure on the Hurricane in singles action and proceeded to go up 2-0 on the day with a 6-4, 6-1 win in the No. 6 position. From there, TU retaliated with four straight victories in the Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5 positions to earn the 10^th team win of the year.

Starting the comeback was Okonkwo in the fifth position against Bruno Oliveira. After dropping the first set, 6-1, Okonkwo took advantage of 5-0 and 5-1 starts in the next two frames to put Tulsa on the board with a 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 final result. Okonkwo currently holds Tulsa's best singles win streak at four in a row.

Senior Pierce Rollins picked up his fourth ranked singles win of the year when he took down No. 65 Alivin Tudorica atop the lineup in three sets. Neither player trailed in either of their sets wins to force a third stanza. In the final frame, Rollins broke a 2-2 deadlock and cruised to a 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 final score to make it a 2-2 dual match for Tulsa.

Timothy Carlsson Seger was the next man up in TU's comeback. The sophomore from Taby, Sweden, took down Elijah Cham in just two sets at the No. 4 position. Seger pulled away from a 2-2 tie in the first set for a 6-2 finish before erasing a 4-1 deficit to take the lead at 6-5. Cham would force a seven-point tiebreaker set at six games all but couldn't match up with Seger in the tiebreaker. Seger took advantage of a 5-1 start to the set and rode to victory from there, moving Tulsa to 3-2 with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) final score.

Clinching Tulsa's 4-2 victory was senior Volodymyr Zakharov in the third spot over USF's Tom Pisane after battling through two long sets that featured seven total tie scores and saw both players reach 30-30 splits in multiple games. The first set was knotted up four times until Zakharov broke the tie at five games all to take the first stanza 7-5. In the second set, each athlete fought through three more tie scores before Zakharov pulled away from a 4-4 deadlock to seal the win at 7-5, 6-4. Senior Thiago Pernas left his match at No. 2 Singles unfinished at 6-3, 5-7, 3-2.

The Tulsa men will continue their home stretch with a pair of matches against Lindenwood (2-9) on Friday, April 12, at 6 p.m., and Saturday, April 13, at 5 p.m. The Hurricane will also welcome Temple (6-11) for an American Athletic Conference matchup between the Lindenwood matches for 10:30 a.m. start on Saturday.

Singles
1. Pierce Rollins (TLS) def. #65 Alvin Tudorica (USF) 6-2, 1-6, 6-2
2. Thiago Pernas (TLS) vs. Erik Grevelius (USF) 6-3, 5-7, 3-2, unfinished
3. Volodymyr Zakharov (TLS) def. Tom Pisane (USF) 7-5, 6-4
4. Timothy Seger (TLS) def. Elijah Cham (USF) 6-2, 7-6 (7-2)
5. Alex Okonkwo (TLS) def. Bruno Oliveira (USF) 1-6, 6-1, 6-2
6. Agustin Cuellar (USF) def. Victor Tosetto (TLS) 6-4, 6-1

Doubles
1. #51 Erik Grevelius/Alvin Tudorica (USF) def. #38 Timothy Seger/Pierce Rollins (TLS) 6-3
2. Ben Hudson/Bruno Oliveira (USF) def. Gus Tettamble/Callum Gale (TLS) 6-2
3. Alex Okonkwo/Victor Tosetto (TLS) def. Tom Pavlekovich-Smith/Elijah Cham (USF) 6-4

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