Columbia, S.C. – The No. 18 Florida State men’s tennis team defeated Baylor 4-0 on Friday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Carolina Tennis Center.
“It was a really good college match; I thought that getting a 4-0 win was excellent for us,” head coach Dwayne Hultquist said. “Doubles were split one apiece and the last court was tied at four before Loris Pourroy and Andreja Petrovic stepped up and got us the doubles point which was a great start against a quality opponent.”
Florida State jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after it won the doubles point.
Maks Silagy and Barnaby Smith’s 6-2 victory gave FSU its first doubles win after their win on court No. 3. Petrovic and Pourroy then clinched the doubles point for the Seminoles with a 6-4 victory at No. 2.
Youcef Rihane earned the first singles point for Florida State after a 6-2, 7-5 straight-set win on court No. 3.
Joshua Dous-Karpenschif ‘s 6-3, 7-6 (2) win at No. 4 gave Florida State its third point of the afternoon.
“We got four first sets in singles, and that fourth set may have been the most important one with Jamie coming back after being down at both 5-4 and 6-5 breaks,” Hultquist said. “The second sets were tight; Josh was down and closed it out right after Youcef won his match to give us a 3-0 lead.”
The match was clinched on court No. 5 by Petrovic in a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 come-from-behind victory, giving the Seminoles a 4-0 win.
“It was great that Andy was there and had a commanding lead in the third set and came through for us with a 6-1 win which was big for us,” Hultquist said. “It was a great team effort after one of the hardest draws and playing a preseason top–10 team that we had lost to earlier in the season”.
Florida State has won at least one match in the NCAA Tournament in five consecutive appearances and is now 20-8 on the season. The Seminoles will play No. 8 South Carolina on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Live stats and live video will be available on Seminoles.com.
#18 Florida State 4, Baylor 0
Singles Competition
- #7 Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc (FSU) vs. Tadeas Paroulek (BU) 6-3, 5-7, 0-1 unfinished
- Loris Pourroy (FSU) vs. Zsombor Velcz (BU) 3-6, 6-4, 1-5 unfinished
- #112 Youcef Rihane (FSU) def. Marko Miladinovic (BU) 6-2, 7-5
- Joshua Dous-Karpenschif (FSU) def. Finn Bass (BU) 6-3, 7-6 (2)
- Andreja Petrovic def. Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi (BU) 5-7, 6-2, 6-1
- Jamie Connel (FSU) vs. Luc Koenig…