TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The No. 11 Florida State men’s tennis team (19-1) defeated Georgia Tech (5-8) 5-2 at the Scott Speicher Tennis Center for the 11th home win of the season and 10th win in a row.
“We got swarmed by the Yellow Jackets in doubles and got down 1-0, but I was really pleased that we came out early in the first sets and won five of the six of them with several of them being fairly convincing,” said head coach Dwayne Hultquist.
The Seminoles lost their second doubles point in a row to start the day. There was a bright spot in the doubles point though. With redshirt seniors Jose Gracia and Lucas Poullain’s win on court two, Gracia moved into 10th all-time in doubles wins as an individual at Florida State.
After falling behind 1-0, the Noles took it to the Yellow Jackets in singles, winning five of the six first sets. Senior Guy Iradukunda tied it up for the Garnet and Gold with his 13th win of the season after a 6-1, 6-3 win on court two. Junior Aziz Dougaz gave the Noles their first lead with his 13th win of the season as well. He took down Georgia Tech’s only ranked singles player No. 53 Carlos Divar 6-2, 6-1. Gracia then extended the lead to 3-1 with a 6-1, 6-4 win on court four. He was down 4-1 before he won five straight games to take the second set.
The Yellow Jackets shortened the lead as they defeated sophomore Alex Knaff on court five. Florida State was able to clinch the match 4-2 with a 6-3, 6-3 win by freshman Chase Wood. It was his team-leading fourth match clincher of the season. After the match was clinched Poullain finished off Georgia Tech with a three-set win on court three to secure a 5-2 Seminole win.
“There was one stretch in which I thought Georgia Tech was making a run at us when Jose was down 4-1, but he came back to take the second set,” said Hultquist. “That was key to get us to three points. It was a tough match today. Georgia Tech is a good team and certainly, any match in the ACC is going to be a challenge. Getting off to a 3-0 start in the ACC is great. We now have a huge week in front of us.”
#19 Florida State University 5, Georgia Tech 2
Singles competition
1. #74 Aziz Dougaz (FS) def. #53 Carlos Divar (GT) 6-2, 6-1
2. #16 Guy Iradukunda (FS) def. Phillip Gresk (GT) 6-1, 6-3
3. #56 Lucas Poullain (FS) def. Elijah Melendez (GT) 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
4. Jose Gracia (FS) def. Andrew Li (GT) 6-1, 6-4
5. Michael Kay (GT) def. Alex Knaff (FS) 7-6 (7-5), 6-2
6. Chase Wood (FS) def. Chris Yun (GT) 6-3, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. #13 Michael Kay/Carlos Divar (GT) def. #87 Guy Iradukunda/Aziz Dougaz (FS) 6-4
2. #18 Jose Gracia/Lucas Poullain (FS) def. Phillip Gresk/Andrew Li (GT) 6-2
3. Elijah Melendez/Chris Yun (GT) def. #44 Terrance Whitehurst/Terrell Whitehurst (FS) 6-3
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (2,1,4,5,6,3)
Records to Watch:
- Senior twins, Terrance and Terrell Whitehurst currently have 51 doubles wins tied for fourth-most in school history as a duo.
- Redshirt senior Jose Gracia currently has 151 total doubles and singles wins in his career. He needs 155 to break into the Top-10 in all-time wins in school history.
- Gracia currently has 76 career doubles wins. He currently ranks 10th in all-time career doubles wins as an individual.
