Tallahassee, Florida – The 17thand-The ranked FSU men’s tennis team dropped an epic college tennis match on Friday night. The Seminoles lost 4-3 to No. 40 Duke in an up and down battle that ended in a third set on the final court. The Seminoles (10-4, 1-2) battled back 2-1 to take a 3-2 lead but couldn’t find a point more on the final two courts.
“I thought it was a great college game,” FSU head coach Dwayne Hultquist said. “I think we got off to a bit of a slow start. I was happy with how some of our guys stepped up in the second sets. Everyone is good in the ACC and we’re going to have another battle Sunday against North Carolina.
The Seminoles fell early after losing the doubles point. Duke went up 1-0 with a win on the third row. Maks Silagy and Josh Dous-Karpenschif tied things at two with a 6-3 victory. That left the decision to the court where the Blue Devils won the game and the point.
“Losing the No. 1 double was crucial,” Hultquist said. “We had a 4-1 lead and they came back and won it. I think that was a key point.
Youcef Rihane tied things up at 1-1 with a win on court five. Moments later, Duke came back in front, closing the point on line six, then just as Duke came up, FSU tied it again. Joshua Dous-Karpenschif won 6-1, 6-3 on line four, taking the game to a best 2 of 3 on lines 1-3.
Loris Pourroy put FSU ahead for the first time in the game. The junior, ranked 82n/a in the most recent ITA rankings, he improved to 9-2 on the year on the front row with a 6-2, 6-4 win. This time it was Duke’s turn to even things up by getting the point on the third row, leaving the deciding point on court two with the game tied at 3-3. Andy Petrovic lost his opening set of two but fought back to push it to a third before falling 2-6, 6-1, 4-6.
“We kind of topped one, four and five, but we needed one more,” Hultquist said. “I thought the effort level was really high at two. I think Andy did a great job getting into a third set. He did a great job to make it 4-4. He had a chance in this game 4-4 but his opponent played good points to close the game.
The Seminoles continue to play in the ACC on Sunday as they host the 31st North Carolina. For more information on the Seminole Men’s Tennis Program, please follow us on social media at FSUMTennis (IG) and @FSU_MTennis (TW) and log on to Seminoles.com.
