TALLAHASSEE – The No. 18 Florida State men’s tennis team defeated No. 44 Miami 4-3 on Wednesday evening at Scott Speicher Memorial Tennis Center.
“Tonight, we really had to dig deep, Miami came out and played really well and won the doubles point, and continued the momentum in singles and won a got bunch of quick first sets,” head coach Dwayne Hultquist said. “We had to fight back, which shows our capacity as a team to never be out. The crowd is a big advantage for us, and they stayed the full time. It was great having them cheering us on, and at times when we needed to get picked up, they helped pick us up.”
Miami jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after it won the doubles point.
The Hurricanes doubled their lead following a 6-3, 6-3 victory on court No. 5.
Down 3-1 in set two, Jamie Connel won three straight points to take a 4-3 lead before earning the Seminoles their first point with a 6-4, 6-4 straight-sets victory on court No. 6.
Trailing 2-1 with all four remaining matches in third sets, Florida State needed three victories to secure the win over Miami.
After dropping the first set, Loris Pourroy battled back, winning his second set 6-3 and forcing a third set to be played. Pourroy forced a tiebreaker before winning it 12-10 to tie the match at 2-2.
Joshua Dous-Karpenschif’s come-from-behind win on court No. 3 gave the Seminoles their first lead of the match. Dous-Karpenschif’s 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (1) win extended his unbeaten streak in singles play to 10 matches.
Miami tied the match at 3-3 with a win on court No. 3.
On court No. 1 Cornut-Chauvinc won five straight games to win 6-4 in his third set. Cornut-Chauvinc’s 7-6 (3), 6-7 (7), 6-4 three-set victory gave Florida State its fourth point of the afternoon, clinching the win.
“It was a great match; it showed all the ebbs and flows of a college tennis match,” Hultquist said. “Loris was down 6-3 in third set tiebreaker, Josh was deuce point to lose, our back was against the wall and those guys came through. Antoine was down 4-1 in the third set and won five straight games to come back and win it for us.”
Florida State is now 15-5 overall on the season and 7-2 in the ACC. The Seminoles host Boston College and UNC Wilmington on Friday at 12:00 and 6:00 p.m. Admission to home matches is free. Live stats and live video will be available on Seminoles.com.
#18 Florida State 4, #44 Miami 3
Singles Competition