The University of Miami men’s tennis team defeated the Florida State Seminoles 4-3 at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center in Coral Gables on Saturday in the final regular season match of the year.
The match started off with a senior day ceremony for the Hurricanes’ Antonio Prat, Mehdi Sadaoui, Saud Alhogbani, and Nacho Serra Sanchez. Miami will miss the four seniors next season and will need to find some good replacements.
The Seminoles started off hot in doubles, with Jan Sebesta and Erik Schiessel dominating court one, beating Sadaoui and Jakub Kroslak 6-2.
UM evened things as No. 2 Prat and Rafael Segado overpowered Justin Lyons and Mohammad Alkotop of FSU 6-2.
Minutes later, Florida State clinched the doubles point on court three as Luis Felipe Miguel and Gabor Hornung earned the 6-3 victory over Serra Sanchez and Jules Garot.
The Seminoles opened up singles with another emphatic win from No. 5 Alkotop 6-3, 6-0 over Sadaoui making it a 2-0 lead.
The Hurricanes were able to bounce back with two close victories. No. 6 Garot earned the first point, beating Lyons 7-6(5), 6-2. No. 3 Kroslak narrowly escaped Schiessel 6-4, 7-5 to tie the match at 2 points each.
Florida State retook the lead as Azariah Rusher took down Segado 6-1, 7-5, on court four.
No. 2 Serra Sanchez tied the match at 3, coming out with a 6-3, 7-6(3) win against Corey Craig of FSU after a commanding performance in the second set tiebreaker.
Everything in the rivalry match came down to the top court. Prat got off to a strong start, winning the first set 6-3. However, he gave up a break early in the second and fell 4-6.
The third set was close all the way through before Prat was able to break Miguel late and get the 7-5 victory, clinching the regular season finale for the Hurricanes.
UM finished off the season with a 14-10 record, going 5-7 in ACC play. They will be the No. 8 seed in the ACC tournament in Cary, N.C. and will face off against the winner of No. 9 Duke and No. 16 Boston College on April 16 at 10 a.m.
