No. 31 Men's Tennis Downs Stetson, 6-1
Feb. 19, 2010
Coral Gables, Fla. – The No. 31 University of Miami men’s tennis team won the doubles point and battled on to claim five of six singles matches for the 6-1 victory over visiting Stetson in a rescheduled match at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center on Friday afternoon.
The Hurricanes (3-2), winners of their second-straight match, improved to 3-0 versus the Hatters (2-2), who dropped back-to-back matches this week.
“Stetson was really tough today and gave us a challenging match. We haven’t played in a couple of weeks, so it felt good to get out here and see the guys compete,” said head coach Mario Rincon. “But we are still a long way from where we need to be.”
Miami jumped out to the 1-0 lead, winning all three doubles matches. The Hurricane tandem of Keith Crowley and Hector Nieto improved to 3-0 to clinch the doubles point for UM with the 8-7 (7-4) victory at the No. 2 position. Miami’s top-flight duo of Christian Blöcker and David Simon earned their team-high seventh doubles victory of the 2009-10 season, including their third at No. 1, knocking off Stetson’s duo, 8-5.
Ignacio Taboada kept Miami rolling in singles play with the 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 5 to push the Hurricanes lead to 2-0. Crowley then extended the UM advantage to 3-0 with his own straight-sets win at No.3.
No. 90 Carl Sundberg clinched the match for the Hurricanes, handing Stetson’s Maksim Levanovich his first defeat of the spring, 7-6, 6-4, at the No. 1 spot.
The Hurricanes return to competition at Noon on Sun., Jan. 21, playing host to UCF at the Ashe/Buchholz Tennis Center at Moore Park in Miami – located at 765 NW 36th Street in Miami (near SR 112 and NW 7th Avenue). For the second-straight year, the UM men’s tennis squad will host a match there alongside the City of Miami Parks and Recreation Department and the Greater Miami Tennis & Education Foundation in order to promote tennis to socially and economically challenged youth.
The men’s tennis team initially formed a relationship with the GMTEF three years ago and has since held clinics for the children both at UM and at Moore Park.
No. 31 Miami 6, Stetson 1
Singles
1. #90 Carl Sundberg (UM) def. Maksim Levanovich (Stetson) 7-6, 6-4
2. Christian Blocker (UM) def. Mark Mestan (Stetson) 6-3, 2-6, 7-5
3. Keith Crowley (UM) def. Didrik Berg (Stetson) 6-4, 6-3
4. Cesare Gallo (Stetson) def. Waylon Chin (UM) 6-4, 7-6
5. Ignacio Taboada (UM) def. Alex Hackett (Stetson) 6-3, 6-4
6. David Simon (UM) def. Njal Stene (Stetson) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
Order of finish: 5, 3, 1*, 4, 6, 2
Doubles
1. Christian Blocker/David Simon (UM) def. Didrik Berg/Chris Swanteson (Stetson) 8-5
2. Keith Crowley/Hector Nieto (UM) def. Maksim Levanovich/Cesare Gallo (Stetson) 8-7 (7-4)
3. Carl Sundberg/Ignacio Taboada (UM) def. Mark Mestan/Njal Stene (Stetson) 8-3
Order of finish: 3, 1*, 2
