Online Almanac TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The spring dual season begins for No. 72 University of North Florida men's tennis with this weekend's two-day Seminole Tournament. The Ospreys begin the tournament on Saturday afternoon against No. 66 Louisiana Lafayette at 1 p.m., at the Scott Speicher Tennis Center.
"We will have the opportunity to face a bunch of solid ranked teams this weekend and it will give us a good idea at where the team is at," said head coach
Mark Finnegan. "I could not have been happier with the guys' preparation, so I am really looking forward to this weekend's test. It should be a great weekend of tennis."
In addition to UNF and Louisiana-Lafayette, the Seminole Invitational includes three other ranked teams in No. 35 Florida State, No. 70 UCF and No. 71 St. John's. Denver, Furman and South Alabama are also scheduled to compete this weekend.
Both Furman and Denver are also UNF's side of the bracket. The winner of the UNF-Louisiana-Lafayette match and the winner of Furman-Denver will play each other later on Saturday. The losers will also face each other later on Saturday as well. Play concludes on Sunday.
UNF last played Louisiana-Lafayette during the 2013 dual season in which the Ospreys edged out the then-No. 75 Ragin' Cajuns 4-3 on Feb. 11, 2013. Daniel Sotomarino's 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 three-set victory over Jake Wynan at No. 2 singles captured the deciding match-point for UNF.
Earlier this week, UNF garnered national attention in all three Intercollegiate Tennis Association polls that were released. The Ospreys earned a team ranking for the fourth-consecutive season.
Jack Findel-Hawkins was ranked No. 72 in singles. In the doubles poll, Findel-Hawkins and
Norbert Nemcsek came in at No. 28.
During the fall season, several Ospreys captured championships. Findel-Hawkins won the Bedford Cup with an upset of then-No.19 Robert Cid of USF.
Caio Gomes and
Yannick Zuern won doubles at the Lakewood Ranch Dick Vitale Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic with an 8-5 victory over Duke's Raphael Hemmeler and Josh Levine.
