The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Blazers Advance At Conference USA Men's Tennis Championships
4/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 21, 2006
TULSA, Okla. ----- The UAB men's tennis team advanced to the semifinal round of the 2006 Conference USA Championships, posting a 4-2 victory over No. 5 seed UCF here Friday at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
The fourth-seeded Blazers, who improved their record to 12-4 on the season and claimed their ninth win in the past 11 matches, will now play top seed and 28th-ranked Rice Saturday at Noon. The Owls advanced with a 4-0 win Friday over Southern Mississippi.
The Blazers' win over the Golden Knights avenged a loss earlier this year as UCF had defeated UAB, 5-2, back on Feb. 25 in Orlando.
Head coach Derek Tarr feels his team has been peaking at the right time the past several weeks, and the play was especially outstanding Friday in doubles and at a couple specific spots in the singles lineup.
One of the biggest reversals from the earlier contest with UCF to Friday's match was at No. 6 singles where UAB's Kruno Despotovski again found himself matched against the Golden Knights' Jimmy Roesch. In the match in Orlando, Roesch claimed a 6-0, 6-1 victory, but the outcome was noticeably different this time around as the Blazer junior disposed of Roesch in 6-1, 6-1 fashion.
"No. 6 singles was pivotal because we lost it last time, and this time we won, so of course, that one stood out," said UAB head coach Derek Tarr. Kruno really hung in there today with each point, and made him (Roesch) play a lot of balls. Winning the doubles point was also big for us. We lost in doubles the last time we played, and today, our doubles were good."
UAB easily claimed the doubles point Friday to take a 1-0 lead. At the No. 1 position, the Blazers' Anton Mavrin and Johannes Spangenberg defeated the UCF tandem of Tarek Ben Soltane and Sebastian Delgado, 8-3. Then, at No. 3, the UAB duo of Kristijan Mitrovski and Thomas Weiss downed UCF's Roesch and Brock Sakey, 8-4.
After singles wins by Despotovski and by Mitrovski, who won at No. 3 with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph over the Knights' Delgado, UAB's Sebastian Falk sealed the victory with his straight-sets (6-3, 6-3) win over Alamgir Wali.
For Falk, the win was his 14th in a row and improved his singles record in dual match competition to 15-1.
UCF's lone wins in the match came at No. 4 and 5 singles as Sakey outlasted UAB's Andre Maier at the No. 4 position, 6-4, 6-4, while Ben Soltane defeated the Blazers' Spangenberg, 6-3, 6-3, at No. 5 singles.
UAB's semifinal match Saturday against Rice will start at 12:00 p.m.
UAB 4, UCF 2
Singles
No. 1 - Anton Mavrin (UAB) vs. Sinan Sudas (UCF), DNF
No. 2 - Sebastian Falk (UAB) def. Alamgir Wali (UCF), 6-3, 6-3
No. 3 - Kristijan Mitrovski (UAB) def. Sebastian Delgado (UCF), 6-2, 6-1
No. 4 - Brock Sakey (UCF) def. Andre Maier (UAB), 6-4, 6-4
No. 5 - Tarek Ben Soltane (UCF) def. Johannes Spangenberg (UAB), 6-3, 6-3
No. 6 - Kruno Despotovski (UAB) def. Jimmy Roesch (UCF), 6-1, 6-1
Doubles
No. 1 - Mavrin/Spangenberg (UAB) def. Ben Soltane/Delgado (UCF), 8-3
No. 2 - Falk/Maier (UAB) vs. Norman Alcantara/Sudas (UCF), DNF
No. 3 - Mitrovski/Thomas Weiss (UAB) def. Roesch/Sakey (UCF), 8-4
Players Mentioned
