TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State’s Loris Pourroy recorded his biggest victory of the season Friday night and two freshmen came through in big spots for FSU.
The Seminoles rallied to beat the University of Central Florida 4-3 after trailing 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 and moved to 7-2 on the season.
Coming into 2022, UCF was ranked No. 11 in the ITA Preseason Poll. Five of the Knights’ first six matches this spring came against #3 Florida, #8 Georgia, #10 Wake Forest, #14 Stanford and #24 NC State so the Seminoles knew they were facing a team much better than its 1-6 record Friday night.
“Tonight was a really good building block for where we could go this season,” said FSU Head Coach Dwayne Hultquist. “It came down to two freshmen and they really stepped it up in the third set. Both of them lost the first set and bounced back to win convincingly in the third, which was great. It was a great effort. We had a great crowd tonight and it was great for our tennis community. It really showcased our guy’s abilities.”
After falling behind early on all three doubles courts, the Seminoles fought back to get to 5-5 and 4-5 on courts one and three but were unable to complete the comeback dropping the doubles point 2-0.
In singles, Pourroy and Andreja Petrovic led the way with strong performances at one and three.
Pourroy was first off with an impressive 6-3, 6-2 win over the ITA’s No. 50 singles player. With the match tied at 1-1, UCF briefly jumped back in front before Petrovic finished off his match in straight sets 6-0, 6-4 to take line three and even things up at 2-2.
UCF once again jumped into the lead with a win on court four while both five and six went into a third set. Youcef Rihane came back after dropping his first set to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 to once again tie the match leaving the result to court six. On six, Josh Dous-Karpenschif also dropped his first set but like Rihane he also rallied to take his match 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 giving the Seminoles the win.
“It was good to see us bounce back after doubles,” said Hultquist. “It was the first time we lost doubles all season. We are 8-1 in doubles now. That has been an important point for us this year and to have lost it and come back and won the match is really good for our guys.
“I was really proud of Loris and Andy. They got off quick. Even though they won four first sets, I thought them getting off was really crucial. We won four of the six second sets and all the third sets. We got stronger as the match went on and we may gain some confidence off this win versus a team that was ranked No. 11 in the country in the preseason.”
The Seminoles will head on the road to take on Mississippi State Feb. 19.
The match is scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. start and is a make-up date for the meeting that was postponed earlier this season.
