Hurricanes Down Minnesota to Move to 11-5
CORAL GABLES, Fla.– On a day that started out with gloomy weather and gloomy play for the No. 70 Miami Hurricane’s Men’s Tennis team, they managed to capture a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Golden Gophers as the skies cleared and the sun set over the Neil Schiff Tennis Center courts.
Junior Omar Aly clinched Miami’s win with an incredible 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) victory as both team’s watched on in anxiety.
“Omar really embodied what our team is about and really how we played today as well,” assistant coach Mark Dickson said. “The strength and conditioning workouts we’ve been doing are really paying off, and in a match that goes to a tiebreaker in the 3rd set, we needed that.”
The Canes had a bit of a rough start to their day. Omar Aly and Wilfredo Gonzalez won their match on the first doubles court against Minnesota’s Mathieu Froment and Jack Hamburg with an easy 8-2 win. Unfortunately, Miami dropped the other two doubles points by the score of 8-5, allowing Minnesota to clinch the doubles decision and take a 1-0 lead.
“We played pretty well in doubles today but they played extremely well and took the point from us,” head coach Mario Rincon said. “It was important for us to win that, but we knew we still had a chance going into singles play and we were able to edge it out. We lost a very tough match to them 2 years ago, so winning today the way we did feels amazing.”
Gabriel Flores had a tough fought 3-6, 4-6 loss to Minnesota’s Rok Bonin after William Albanese had tied the match at 1-1 for Miami with his 7-5, 6-3 win over the Golden Gopher’s Ruben Weber. Minnesota then went up 3-1 as Marco Stancati fell against the Golden Gopher’s Juan Pablo Ramirez.
The Canes were not deterred after being down 3-1. Wilfred Gonzalez won on court 3 for the Canes, 7-5, 6-3. That was followed by Diego Soto’s 3 set win against Minnesota’s Leandro Toledo, in which Soto dropped the first set but ended up winning the last 2 by the score of 6-3.
Soto’s victory was followed up by the match clinching heroics of Aly as the Hurricanes clinched an important midweek win against Minnesota.
The Canes play again at home on Friday, March 22nd at 2 P.M. as they take on Georgia State. For more information on the University of Miami men’s tennis team, log on to HurricaneSports.com. To follow the UM men’s tennis team socially, visit Twitter.com/CanesMensTennis and facebook.com/MiamiHurricanesMensTennis.
Singles Competition
1. Rok Bonin (MIN) def. Gabriel Flores (MIA) 6-3,6-4
2. Diego Soto (MIA) def. Leandro Toledo (MIN) 3-6,6-3,6-3
3. Wilfredo Gonzalez (MIA) def. Mathieu Froment (MIN) 7-5,6-3
4. Omay Aly (MIA) def. Jack Hamburg (MIN) 3-6,6-2,7-6(7-5)
5.Juan Pablo Ramirez (MIN) def. Marco Stancati (MIA) 7-6,6-4
6. WIlliam Albanese (MIA) def. Ruben Weber (MIN) 7-5,6-3
Doubles Competition
1. Aly/Gonzalez (MIA) def. Hamburg/Froment (MIN) 8-2
2. Bonin/Ramirez (MIN) def. Soto/Flores (MIA) 8-5
3. Toledo/Weber (MIN) def. Stancati/Tsukamoto (MIA) 8-5
