FORT WORTH, TEXAS (Fenruary 23, 2008) The No. 46 TCU men’s tennis team blanked No. 66 Minnesota on Saturday by a score of 7-0 at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. The win pushes the Horned Frogs to 9-0 on the season, while dropping the Golden Gophers to 1-7 overall.
“I was really worried about the team looking ahead to tomorrow’s match, and I’m happy we were able to pull it out,” said TCU head coach Dave Borelli. “We started slow and didn’t play very well in the doubles, but we were still able to get the win at all three positions.
“The great thing about this team is they really play well with their backs against the wall. This is the best group of competitors I’ve been around when they’re under pressure.”
The TCU duo of Zach Nichols and Jack Seider led off doubles play with an 8-3
victory over Minnesota’s Derek Peterson and Dino Bilankov at the No. 3 position
to remain undefeated this season.
The No. 51 TCU doubles team of Emanu Brighiu and Adrian Simon also remained
unbeaten with an 8-5 win over Adam Altepeter and Chi-Lang Pham to clinch the
doubles point. The 14th-ranked Horned Frog duo of Kriegler Brink and Cosmin
Cotet completed the sweep with an 8-5 win over Raoul Schwark and Sebastian
Gallego at the top position.
Cotet began singles play with a dominating win over No. 46 Schwark at the top
slot. Cotet won the first eight games of the match en route to his 6-0, 6-4
victory.
“Cosmin really got back to his form today and defeated a really good player,”
Borelli said. “I still believe he’s one of the top 10 to 15 players in the
nation, and today he showed that.”
Brink followed with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Pierre Dumas to push his season singles
record to 8-0. Nichols also stayed perfect on the season with a 6-2, 6-3 defeat
of Pham to clinch the match for TCU.
Casey Powers put the Frogs up 5-0 with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Peterson at the No. 6
position, while Brighiu and Simon both won their matches in the second-set
tiebreaker.
“Emanuel and Adi fought hard to come back and win their matches that most
players would lose,” Borelli said.
TCU will return to action on Sunday at 2 p.m. against No. 15 Oklahoma State.
Free pizza will be provided to the public.
No. 46 TCU (9-0) def. No. 66 Minnesota (1-7), 7-0
SINGLES
1. No. 83 Cosmin Cotet (TCU) def. No. 46 Raoul Schwark (Minn) 6-0, 6-4
2. Emanu Brighiu (TCU) def. Dino Bilankov (Minn) 7-5, 3-6, 11-9
3. Adrian Simon (TCU) def. Sebastian Gallego (Minn) 4-6, 7-5, 13-11
4. Kriegler Brink (TCU) def. Pierre Dumas (Minn) 6-3, 6-2
5. Zach Nichols (TCU) def. Chi-Lang Pham (Minn) 6-2, 6-3
6. Casey Powers (TCU) def. Derek Peterson (Minn) 7-5, 6-4
Order of Finish: 1, 4, 5*, 6, 3, 2
DOUBLES
1. No. 14 Brink/Cotet (TCU) def. Schwark/Gallego (Minn) 8-5
2. No. 51 Brighiu/Simon (TCU) def. Altepeter/Pham (Minn) 8-5
3. Nichols/Seider (TCU) def. Peterson/Bilankov (Minn) 8-3
Order of Finish: 3, 2*, 1
*Clinching point
No comments:
Post a Comment