MTN Comes Up Short against No. 16 Mississippi State
ORLANDO, Fla. – Taking the USTA National Campus courts Saturday morning for the first round of the NCAA Team Championship, the University of Miami men’s tennis team came up just short against No. 16 Mississippi State, 4-1.
Despite claiming a top-15 doubles victory and a top-20 singles win, the Hurricanes were unable to pull away in Orlando, Fla.
The Bulldogs (17-9, 5-7 SEC) got off to an early lead when Nemanja Malesevic and Davide Tortora topped Adria Soriano Barrera and Oren Vasser, 6-2.
The Canes (8-11, 4-6 ACC) quickly battled back in a top-35 doubles affair, as No. 31 Franco Aubone and Benjamin Hannestad outlasted No. 15 Florian Broska and Gregor Ramskogler, 6-4.
In the final match to conclude, Nicolas Ocana and Giovanni Oradini placed the Bulldogs on the board with a hard-fought 7-5 win against Bojan Jankulovski and Stefan Milicevic.
In singles, the Hurricanes continued to battle, facing a quartet of nationally ranked singles players.
In the first match to conclude, Aubone fell against Ramskogler, 4-6, 2-6, as Mississippi State doubled its lead, 2-0.
After dropping the opening set, 1-6, against No. 48 Broska, Jankulovski forced a second-set tiebreaker, but ultimately came up just short, 2-6. 6-7 (2-7), as the Bulldogs took a 3-0 advantage.
Looking to spark a comeback, No. 39 Soriano Barrera collected his second consecutive top-20 individual triumph, earning a straight-set victory over No. 20 Oradini.
Trailing 1-5 in the opening set, the Barcelona, Spain, native rallied off four straight games and ultimately secured the victory, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5.
On court 5, Vasser bounced back against Carles Hernandez to force a third, however the Miami junior was unable to hold on, coming up short, 3-6, 6-3, 1-6.
With the match clinched, courts 3 and 4 remained unfinished as both entered third sets.
Facing No. 53 Malesevic, Hannestad was tied 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), when play was halted. Meanwhile, Milicevic looked to mount a comeback against No. 121 Alberto Colas, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 1-2.
