Men's Tennis | 4/23/2017 3:36:00 AM

Box Score FORT MYERS, Fla. - North Florida men's tennis dropped a highly contested 4-3 decision to host FGCU in the semifinals of the ASUN Tournament beginning late on Saturday night and stretching into early Sunday morning.

Originally scheduled for 5 p.m., a downpour in the Fort Myers area soaked the FGCU courts and forced more than a six-hour delay. The doubles matches started shortly before midnight and the last singles match finished shortly after 3 a.m.

The fourth-seeded Eagles became just the second team this season to grab a doubles point from the Ospreys as FGCU won in the No. 3 position, 6-2 before UNF evened the score with a 6-4 win from Jack Findel-Hawkins and Jefta Kecic. Coming down to the No. 2 court, FGCU got the best of the Ospreys in a 7-6 (4) tiebreaker.

Due to the court condition, the 1-3 singles matches began play while the other courts waited to go on. 

With a target on their back with a 6-1 win against FGCU in the regular season, the Ospreys had a battle in front of them and battle they did. Four of the six singles matches went to three-sets and one was an extremely close tiebreak in the first set. 

FGCU went ahead with a quick victory in the No. 2 spot before senior Jack Findel-Hawkins showed why he was back-to-back ASUN Player of the Year. He powered through his third set in the No. 1 spot to give UNF its first point of the match. Classmate Yannick Zuern followed closely behind in the No. 3 spot to knot the match at two-all.

After getting the first set in an exciting fashion, Lasse Muscheites held on for the 6-3 win in the second set to give UNF a 3-2 advantage. Leaving it to sophomore Sahil Deshmukh. Deshmukh took down Andres Alfonzo easily in the opening set, but the Eagle battled back and forced UNF mistakes that eventually evened the match back at 3-all.

Left to the No. 6 court and FGCU up one, Javier Fernandez owned a 5-2 advantage in the second set and pushed through to clinch the match for the Eagles and knock off top-seeded UNF.

North Florida finishes its season with a 14-7 mark and will wait for NCAA selections for singles and doubles players.

Singles Competition
1. #66 Jack Findel-Hawkins (UNF) def. RAMIREZ, Felipe (FGCU) 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
2. RUIZ, Mateo (FGCU) def. #123 Jefta Kecic (UNF) 6-0, 6-2
3. Yannick Zuern (UNF) def. LANDERT, Oliver (FGCU) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
4. Lasse Muscheites (UNF) def. CERRINI, Ezequiel (FGCU) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3
5. ALFONZO, Andres (FGCU) def. Sahil Deshmukh (UNF) 2-6, 6-2, 6-3
6. FERNANDEZ, Javier (FGCU) def. Jonathan Deautriell (UNF) 6-2, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. #46 Jack Findel-Hawkins/Jefta Kecic (UNF) def. LANDERT, Oliver/RAMIREZ, Felipe (FGCU) 6-4
2. ALFONZO, Andres/CERRINI, Ezequiel (FGCU) def. Lasse Muscheites/Yannick Zuern (UNF) 7-6 (7-4)
3. RUIZ, Mateo/FERNANDEZ, Javier (FGCU) def. Jonathan Deautriell/Sahil Deshmukh (UNF) 6-2