On Sunday the Miami Hurricanes took the University of South Florida literally by storm.
Despite a two-and-a-half-hour rain delay and a second brief stoppage during the match, the ‘Canes managed to win both the doubles and singles contests.
The conditions did not improve during the match, as the ‘Canes had to fight through sporadic winds and a constant drizzle.
“The delay happened right after the doubles matches and during our warm up for the singles, so it threw off some things,” Tim Krebs said after his matches. “But we went inside relaxed, ate some food, and got to work.”
Krebs won both his doubles and singles matches, extending his personal winning streak to 14 matches in a row.
“Tim has the look of a killer when he plays,” UM Head Coach Mario Rincon said.
On the No. 2 court, Josh Cohen faced off against Fredy Barton and took the first set 6-2. Cohen ultimately won the match when Barton was disqualified for throwing his racket after Cohen took the first game of the second set. Junior Luigi D’Agord lost his doubles match but came back strong in singles to defeat Dirk Britzen 7-6, clinching the final point needed for the overall team win.
“The team this year is looking great; we started off the year ranked 70th and now we are probably going to be ranked 18th,” Krebs said. “The difference between last year’s and this year’s team is Coach Mario. The whole team was down until he came in with a positive confident attitude that we all feed off of.”
Rincon was an assistant coach at Alabama before taking over the head coaching job at UM late last season. He has brought in two assistant coaches, Jason Cook and Tom Pudge.
“Our goal for this year is to be top 10, host and win a regional and end up in Stanford for the Sweet 16,” said Krebs.
The ‘Canes take on their next Atlantic Coast Conference rival, Clemson, on Saturday March 4 at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.
Richard Lavi