After weeks of climbing the national rankings, the No. 22 Canes headed north to Tallahassee looking for their first upset against a top-10 opponent. The Canes were 2-0 in April, but fell to the No. 4 Florida State Seminoles at the Scott Speicher Memorial Tennis Center on Friday.
As any Canes-Seminole rivalry the score was close, with the team losing 4-3 by a narrow one point margin. It was a back and forth battle, but the Hurricanes (11-7, 8-5 ACC) started the day off strong, collecting three singles victories.
Freshman Maya Tahan defeated Florida State’s Andrea Garcia, winning in two sets 6-2, 6-2.
The Seminoles (16-3,11-2 ACC) fought back as redshirt freshman Victoria Allen defeated Miami’s Diana Khodan 6-4, 6-1. Striking back Miami’s No. 17 Isabella Pfennig defeated No. 31 Emmanuelle Salas 6-3, 6-4, but Florida State’s Nandini Das defeated veteran Daevenia Achong in two sets 6-2, 6-4.
With the teams tied at 2-2 it was up to former champion Estela Perez-Somarriba and freshman Florencia Urrutia to give the Canes the advantage before heading into doubles play. No. 4 Perez-Somarriba remained consistent taking down No. 8 Giulia Pairone 6-4, 6-3.
On court four, Urrutia was battling redshirt sophomore Petra Hule. Urrutia lost the first set in a tiebreaker 6-7 (9-11), but bounced back in the second without giving up a game. After forcing the third set and having seven match point opportunities, Urrutia couldn’t hold and fell to Hule 6-7 (9-11), 6-0, 7-6 (7-2).
Rallying off of the tiebreak momentum, the Seminoles went on to dominate the rest of the day, sweeping the Canes in doubles play. No. 42 Allen and Salas upset the No. 12 duo Perez-Somarriba and Pfennig 6-4. No. 12 Das and Garcia held strong against Miami’s No. 20 Khodan and Tahan winning 6-4 and Hule and Pairone defeated Achong and Urrutia 6-3 handing the pair their second defeat of the day.
Miami will look to wrap up its season at home this Friday against Florida Atlantic at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.