Miami tennis performs well in singles play, winning match against Louisville

Junior Bernard Tefel hits a forehand shot during the men’s tennis match against Louisville Sunday afternoon at the Neil Shiff Tennis Center. Tefel fought through a second set tiebreak point to win the match and put Miami up 3-2. Giancarlo Falconi // Staff Photographer
Junior Bernard Tefel hits a forehand shot during the men’s tennis match against Louisville Sunday afternoon at the Neil Shiff Tennis Center. Tefel fought through a second set tiebreak point to win the match and put Miami up 3-2. Giancarlo Falconi // Staff Photographer
Junior Bernard Tefel hits a forehand shot during the men’s tennis match against Louisville Sunday afternoon at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center. Tefel fought through a second-set tiebreak point to win the match and put Miami up 3-2. Giancarlo Falconi // Staff Photographer

The Hurricanes snapped a five-match losing streak with a 5-2 win over Louisville in the final home match of the season on Sunday afternoon.

“I think Louisville is a good team and we needed a win at home to end our regular season,” Head Coach Mario Rincon said to HurricaneSports.com.

Miami (8-12, 3-7) got off to a poor start, losing badly in the doubles point. Junior Jesse Flores and No. 43 sophomore Piotr Lomacki got behind early and were unable to bounce back, losing their match 6-3.

The duo of freshmen Fermin Calvo and sophomore Nile Clark also struggled, eventually losing 6-1.

The Canes rebounded in singles play. Sophomore Niclas Genovese earned his first win of the season, as he defeated Christian Haushammer in two sets, 6-3, 6-0.

Bouncing back from his doubles loss, Lomacki was much more effective in his singles play, winning his match in two swift sets. Calvo was unable to keep the Canes’ momentum going when he lost in two sets, tying the overall match 2-2.

The Canes proceeded to blow away Louisville (13-15, 0-10) as Bernard Tefel, Max Andrews and Flores all won their matches, giving Miami the 5-2 victory.

Before beating the Cardinals, Miami lost to North Carolina State 4-3 on Friday at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center. The Canes once again fell behind, but this time they could not come back for the win. Miami lost the doubles point and the first singles match to go down 2-0.

“We didn’t play very well, and we were a little bit flat at the beginning. The guys were really slow to start, but we got a little bit of momentum and played better to make it competitive. But that’s still not the way we can play doubles,” Rincon said to HurricaneSports.com.

The Canes played hard in the remainder of the match, but their comeback effort fell short. Calvo, Tefel and Lomacki each won their match to tie it 3-3. The contest came down to a match between Genovese and Chris Mikrovas. Genovese played well, but he eventually lost in three sets, 6-4, 6-7 and 6-4.

The Canes next play Virginia Tech at 1 p.m. on Friday in Blacksburg, Virginia.