JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—The University of North Florida men's tennis team swept Georgia Southern and Bethune-Cookman, 7-0 and 4-0, respectively on Saturday in the team's home openers at the UNF Tennis Complex.
"Today we had three wins for our program, two were tennis matches and one was raising money for a great charity," said head coach Mark Finnegan. "Thank you to Caio and Norbert for raising over $300 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. It was a great day, but it was tough playing a doubleheader with each match in a different format. I am really proud of them for being tough all week long."
The Ospreys started off the day by clinching the doubles point against Georgia Southern with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles.
Norbert Nemcsek and
Jack Findel-Hawkins defeated Kyle Hoffman and Rafael Racy 6-3 at the No. 1 spot. At the No. 2 spot,
Caio Gomes and
Pablo Tellez defeated Marco Osorio and Nico DeGroff 6-5 (7-3).
The Ospreys then accumulated straight-set wins at five of the six singles positions. Nemcsek started UNF off with a 6-4, 6-5 (7-3) win over Oliver Webb at the No. 1 position. Gomes followed suit with a 6-2, 6-5 (7-3) victory over Albert Codina Sala at No. 2 singles.
At No. 3 singles, Findel-Hawkins claimed a hard-fought three-set win over Marco Osorio. Findel-Hawkins took the first set quickly with a 6-0 score. Osorio fought back to win the second 6-3. To break the tie, Findel-Hawkins and Osorio turned to a third set, with Findel-Hawkins posting a 6-3 decision to win the match.
Tellez garnered his first singles dual match victory with a 6-4, 6-5 (7-4) win over DeGroff at No. 4 singles, while
Zach Goldberg won a 6-3, 6-5 (7-4) matchup over Christain Kerrigan at No. 5. Bernardo Craviero defeated Racy 6-4, 6-5 (7-5) at the No. 6 spot to round out play in the match.
North Florida hosted Bethune-Cookman later in the day. The Ospreys started off the match by claiming the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1&3. Nemcsek and Findel-Hawkins defeated Santiago Lobelo and Diego Garavito 8-4 at the top spot, while Goldberg and Hamill defeated Greg Almeida and Gilbert Rotich, 8-3, at No. 3
The Ospreys accumulated wins at the No. 2, No. 4 and No. 6 positions in singles play in claiming the 4-0 shutout decision. At No. 2 singles, Nemcsek defeated Lobelo 6-4, 6-1, and Tellez boasted a 6-3, 6-3 straight set victory over Alvaro Barrera at the No. 4 spot. Craveiro dominated Pablo Lopez, 6-0, 6-1, in earning the decisive match.
North Florida returns to action with a road trip to UCF (Feb. 21) and the University of Miami (Fla.) on Feb. 22.
