JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - North Florida men's tennis looks to carry its momentum from defeating No. 64 Georgia State into the USF Quad Tournament when it faces VCU, Pepperdine and USF beginning on Friday. The Ospreys take on VCU on Friday, No. 53 Pepperdine on Saturday and wrap up against No. 17 USF on Sunday.
Reigning A-Sun Player of the Week
Lasse Muscheites is currently on a six-match winning streak in singles and helped UNF defeat its fourth nationally-ranked opponent of the season in Georgia State, 4-1. In doubles play, Muscheites and
Zach Goldberg are on a three-match winning streak, while freshmen
Sahil Deshmukh and
Jonathan Deautriell are also on the same streak at the No. 3 spot. Junior
Yannick Zuern is stepping up in the No. 1 spot with the abscence of
Jack Findel-Hawkins who is currently ranked No. 100 in the ITA rankings. Findel-Hawkins has been recovering from an injury. Zuern is 2-3 in the No. 1 match and 6-6 overall in dual matches.
VCU is 13-4 on the year and have won three of its last four matches with the lone loss coming against No. 40 Virginia Tech. All but one of the Rams losses have come against nationally-ranked teams. Michal Voscek paces the Rams in the No. 1 position with an 11-3 mark. Three Rams have nine dual victories including Catalin Fifea, Vitor Lima and Daryl Monfils who scatter across the No. 2-5 spots. In doubles play, it is Voscek and Fifea who lead the team with an 8-1 mark including a 6-1 record in the No. 3 spot. UNF and VCU last faced off in 2013 with the Rams getting the 5-2 victory.
Pepperdine is currently ranked 53rd on the Oracle/ITA Rankings this week after holding a 5-6 overall record and 1-0 record in the West Coast Conference. In doubles, the Waves have one ranked pair, with Guilherme Hadlich and Gabriel Sidney who rank 37th this week. Hadlich and Sidney hold down the number one doubles position with an 11-7 overall record this season, including a 2-3 record in the dual campaign. Hadlich holds down the number one singles position for the Waves with a 9-4 overall record and is 3-2 in duals. Lautaro Pane moved up to the number two slot recently after going undefeated for eight consecutive matches. He now has an 8-1 record this dual campaign and a 14-4 record throughout the 2015-16 season. Pane and doubles partner Pedro Iamachkine are also very strong for the Waves with a 6-4 record in dual play this spring and an 18-7 overall record throughout the 2015-16 season. The match marks the first competition between the Ospreys and the Waves.
The hosts, South Florida, are 11-6 overall with all six losses coming against ranked teams. Most recently the Bulls dropped a tight 4-3 decision to No. 3 Ohio State. Roberto Cid, the fifth-ranked player in the country, leads the team with a 14-2 record. Cid has defeated two top five players and owns the highest national rank of any player in USF history. Dominic Cotrone also owns a national rank in 31st and in doubles play with Justin Roberts hits the No. 32 spot. The duo is 8-2 on the year in the No. 1 position. Cid along with Ignaacio Gonzalez are 9-2 on the year in the No. 3 spot, while the team has used several other teams to secure a .714 winning percentage in doubles. USF owns the last four meetings between the teams with all of the victories coming on the Bulls home court.
After the weekend, UNF fully turns its attention to conference play. The Ospreys host Lipscomb on Thursday, March 31 at 6 p.m.
