Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.– Four straight-set singles results and five other narrow decisions gave the University of North Florida men's tennis team a 7-0 Atlantic Sun Conference-opening win against Florida Gulf Coast at the UNF Tennis Complex on Friday.
“The guys went on the court ready to get a good result and thinking about how important picking up the win in our first conference match would be,” UNF head coach Igal Buberman said. “We lost to FGCU last year, so knew we had to start with a lot of intensity to set the tone early.”
To win the doubles point, UNF (5-2, 1-0 A-Sun) swept all three matches with two of them coming down to the wire. Freshman Marc Misanovic' and junior Federico Levi outlasted the No. 1 doubles pair from FGCU (0-6, 0-2) 9-8(2) while sophomore Graham Edgar and junior Ronnie Sang held on for a 9-7 win at the third position. The Ospreys won at No. 2 by a score of 8-4.
Edgar, junior Kurt Gattiker and freshman Marcos Chiaretti all notched 6-0, 6-2 wins in singles play. Chiaretti defeated Rafael Costa in the No. 4 position while Gattiker and Edgar were winners at the fifth and six slots, respectively. Levi posted a 6-3, 6-1 victory at the top individual spot.
Sang played his highest place in the lineup of the season (No. 2) and used a comeback campaign to gather the win. After falling 6-1 in the opening set, he battled back for a 7-5 second-set win and then took a 10-6 decision in the super tiebreaker.
Also using three sets to earn the victory, Misanovic' won his opening set 6-2 before dropping the second set by the same score. He stayed strong through the super tiebreaker, emerging with an 11-9 decision.
“Our players are already thinking about the match against Stetson and our opportunity to beat a ranked team for the first time this season,” Buberman said. “Things seem to be in order for Sunday, so we are all looking forward to compete against a solid team.”
Sunday's match at the UNF Tennis Complex will begin at 2 p.m. when UNF will put its unbeaten home record on the line against the No. 65 Stetson Hatters.
