Both of Miami’s tennis teams dominated Central Florida on Saturday, taking a combined 17 of 18 matches from the Golden Knights at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.
The only blemish for the ‘Canes was a loss in men’s No. 1 doubles. Sinan Sudas and Norman Alcantara defeated Miami’s Luigi D’Agord, a junior, and sophomore Vivek Subramanian 8-5.
The 13th-ranked women swept through doubles 8-3, as collegiate doubles matches are played in “pro sets,” a single set played to eight games. In singles competition for the women, UM sophomore Audra Cohen defeated UCF’s Pamela Fernandez at the No. 1 position 6-2, 6-2. The second set was tight, with a number of games reaching deuce.
In second singles action, senior Melissa Applebaum took down Elvira Serrot 6-2, 6-2.
The fastest match for the women was in the No. 3 singles spot when freshman Monica Dancevic blanked UCF’s Anna Yakimchenkova in the first set and won the second set 6-1. Sophomore Patricia Starzyk beat Megan Hunter 6-1, 6-2 on Court Five.
All eight competition courts were used by both teams, so the fifth and sixth spots had to play on the first courts available whenever the higher-ranked singles matches ended. Because of this, the No. 5 match was played on Court Three, where Miami’s Ana Rupic, a junior, downed Jennifer Carati in a tiebreaker. Rupic won the first set 6-0, faltered in the second, losing 2-6, and won the tiebreak 11-9. Sophomore Careen Seenauth then downed Kyla McNicol on Court Two 6-2, 6-1 to close out the sweep.
The UM men, ranked 24th in the country, took two of three doubles matches from the Golden Knights and moved to singles action on courts four through six.
In first singles, D’Agord, ranked 25th in the country in singles, overpowered Sudas 6-1, 6-2 with a strong service game, aiming deep in the service boxes. Court Four’s match between Miami junior Josh Cohen and Alamgir Wali lasted two sets, with No. 87 Cohen winning 6-1, 6-2.
Senior Tim Krebs stayed undefeated at 6-0 for the season as he turned away the Golden Knights’ Tarek Ben Soltane 6-1, 6-0 in the third spot. Senior Eric Hechtman topped Alcantara 6-1, 6-2; senior John Hoyes beat UCF’s Sebastian Salgado 6-4, 6-4.
For Miami to sweep the singles matches, Subramanian had to fight back from a 4-6 first set hole against Brock Sakey to win the second set 6-0 and claw back again in the tiebreaker. Sakey had three match points, as he led 6-3 in the tiebreak. Subramanian won four straight points to lead 7-6, and held on to win the tiebreak 10-8.
The women will be back in action at home on Thursday at noon against Kentucky while the men will host South Florida on Sunday at noon.
Rodolfo Tomarchio can be reached at r.tomarchio@umiami.edu