The No. 39 University of Miami Hurricanes (5-3, 0-1) lost to No. 19 Florida State (9-1, 3-0) 5-2 in their ACC opener, extending FSU’s winning streak to seven and breaking Miami’s four-game winning streak. Florida State’s team boasted three ranked players: No. 35 Jean-Yves Aubone, No. 55 Clint Bowles and No. 69 Vahid Mizradeh.
“FSU has a really solid squad there,” head coach Mario Rendon said. “They are very deep and they’re one of the best teams in the ACC.”
Miami’s top-ranked doubles team No. 60 Christian Blocker and David Simon experienced its first loss losing convincingly 8-1 to their instate opponents. A Seminoles doubles win over doubles partners Ignacio Tabado and Waylon Chin, 8-5, gave the Seminoles the doubles point to give Florida State a 1-0 lead in the match.
Hector Nieto and Keith Crowley continued their dominant doubles play to get Miami their first win of the match, 8-6, over the Seminoles to improve to 6-0 for the season.
Seminoles No. 69 Vahid Mizradeh beat Christian Blocker 6-2, 6-1 to give the Seminoles a 2-0 lead in the Match. Carl Sundberg, playing at the No. 1 position, was unable to pull off the upset against Seminole No. 35 Jean-Yves Aubone losing 6-2, 6-4.
Keith Crowley rallied back in the second set to force a tie break but was unable to hold off FSU’s No. 55 Clint Bowles who won the game 6-2, 7-6 to get the decisive point for the 4-0 win.
“We were exposed to a couple things that we need to work on,” Rendon said. “Our guys came back strong and kept fighting in the singles so I’m proud of that.”
Waylon Chin got the first point of the day for the Hurricanes with a 7-6, 7-5 over FSU’s Andres Bucaro. Ignacio Taboada did not manage to recover after losing the second tie break eventually losing the match to Connor Smith 4-6, 7-6, 1-0.
“I’m looking forward to going to Clemson and Georgia Tech and [turning] it around,” Rendon said.
The Hurricanes will continue their ACC play against Clemson on Mar. 13 and Georgia Tech on Mar. 14.
Debora Rubi may be contacted at drubi@themiamihurricane.com.