TALLAHASSEE – The No. 15 Florida State men’s tennis team defeated South Alabama with a 5-2 win on Friday afternoon at the FSU Indoor Tennis Center.
“I thought we got stronger as the match went on,” head coach Dwayne Hultquist said. “I thought we had a good chance to win the doubles point but ended up losing on a deuce point. We got three first sets. To me that was the time in the match where we got stronger. South Alabama played us tough, they are a strong indoor team.”
Florida State rallied after being down 1-0, with Youcef Rihane’s dominant 6-1, 6-2 win at Court No. 3 tying the match. Rihane is ranked 38th in the nation in singles play and has six wins on the season.
No. 3-ranked Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc remains undefeated on the season at Court No. 1 after his 6-3, 6-4 victory over Sebastien Collard put the Seminoles in the lead. Cornut-Chauvinc is now 7-0, with five of those wins coming against ranked opponents.
Joshua Dous-Karpenschif battled back for a 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 win on court No. 1 to give FSU a 3-1 lead. The Seminoles continued to fight, with two courts requiring third sets to be played.
With Florida State leading South Alabama 3-1, Florida State only needed one victory to clinch the match. Louis Pourroy came back from a 4-1 deficit in his second set, winning the set 7-6 after winning 7-5 in the tiebreaker, to clinch the match for the Noles.
Alex Bulte finished the night for the Seminoles, after a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 win at No. 6 gave Florida State the final point of the afternoon. After losing the first set, Bulte found himself down 5-4 in the second set and facing match point before he won three straight games to win the second set and went on to win the third set 6-3.
“I’m really happy for Alex Bulte, getting in the lineup” Hultquist said. “He was down a set at the break, and then came back. It was a great effort on Alex’s part, I’m really proud of him. It would be easy to hang your head, the other guy was playing really well, and Alex stepped up and made his shots. He won 6-3 in the third, and even the games he didn’t win were deuce games and he battled and didn’t hold back at all.”
South Alabama won the doubles point after winning 6-4 on Court No. 3 and 7-5 on Court No. 1. Florida State won 6-2 on Court No. 2.
“It was a good battle and we got to get ready for Sunday” Hultquist said. “Sunday is a big match, SEC versus ACC, so we have to go get ready and I’m…