STARKVILLE– Arizona State men’s tennis (3-1) pulled off the upset over No. 25 Florida State (3-2) with a 4-3 victory over the Noles in the first round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend. The team advanced to the Championship match, and is set to face Virginia Commonwealth on Sunday, January 28 at 12:00 p.m. MST. Live stream and stats are available here. The Sun Devils earned their first win over a top-25 ranked opponent since defeating No. 23 Stanford in the Pac-12 Tournament on April 25, 2021.
Head Coach Matt Hill praised his team’s fight, “The team today really showed off their competitive spirits and resiliency in tough moments. They continue to trust themselves even when they’re behind on the scoreboard and keep looking for solutions to change the outcome of the match. I am so proud of these guys.”
After securing the doubles point today, Arizona State stays perfect in that category, having not yet lost the doubles point in the first four matches of the season.
Murphy Cassone and Martin Vergara were defeated on doubles court one, while the duos in Bor Artnak and Max Mckennon and Constantinos and Bullard battled to tie their sets 6-6 after FSU had set points at each court. Each duo earned 7-6 victories and the doubles point, which gave ASU a 1-0 lead.
Artnak was the lone Sun Devil to win in straight sets, and defeated his opponent 6-3, 6-1. Roi Ginat and McKennon dropped their matches in straight sets 1-6, 0-6, and 4-6, 6-7, respectively, the match was tied 2-2.
Bullard had match point in his third set, up 4-6, 6-2, 5-3 but the match carried on with him eventually pulling away to win 6-4 in the third set to give the Devil the 3-2 edge.
Needing the final point, Cassone battled to a third set on court one, but was defeated 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 and it was a 3-3 match.
The match came down to Vergara Del Puerto on court five where he had battled to set three after splitting the first two sets 7-6 and 4-6. Vergara Del Puerto did not yield and won the match for the Sun Devils after the 6-4 victory in set three.
Singles:
- Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc (FSU) def. Murphy Cassone (ASU) 6-2, 5-7, 6-4
- Bor Artnak (ASU) def. Loris Pourroy (FSU) 6-3, 6-1
- Youcef Rihane (FSU) def. Max McKennon (ASU) 6-4, 7-6
- Jacob Bullard (ASU) def. Jamie Connel (FSU) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
- Martin Vergara del Puerto (ASU) def. Joshua Dous-Karpenshif (FSU)…
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