Jan. 27, 2007

Final Stats

Orlando, Fla. - Bethune-Cookman College men's tennis was unable to open the year off with a win on Saturday as they fell by a score of 7-0 to the University of Central Florida at the UCF Tennis Complex in Orlando, Fla.

UCF (1-0) started off the year in great fashion in the doubles portion of the match as they swept their central Florida counterparts from Daytona Beach in straight sets throughout. In the process, B-CC (0-1) fell to 0-8 all-time against UCF in men's tennis.

B-CC's Stefan James and Edson Luiz Gomes were no match for UCF's sophomore powers of Brock Sakey and Norman Alcantara as the Golden Knights breezed past the `Cats duo, 8-0.

B-CC's Jerome Ward and freshman Yannick Jackson fought hard in their match, but fell 8-2 to the duo of UCF's Jimmy Roesch and Tarek Ben Soltane. The final doubles match was an 8-1 decision in favor of UCF in the No. 1 position for the team of Sinan Sudas and Johan Beigart against the Wildcats' Thabani Sithole and freshman Christian Cruz.

In the singles competition, the top two spots were great matches, but the latter-half did not provide as much spark as UCF swept the `Cats in all six singles events. In fact, the Wildcats won just one set in singles play.

The best match of the day came in the No. 2 position between UCF's Sudas and B-CC's Cruz. Cruz won the first set, 6-7 (5-7) in a tie-breaker, but fell in the next two sets by close scores of 6-3 and 6-4.

In No. 1 play, the Wildcats Sithole did well against Soltane, forcing the second set into a tie-breaker ... one of two on the day between the two teams. Soltane eventually took the set and the match with scores of 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

The Golden Knights had little problem with the `Cats in the No. 3 through No. 6 position. B-CC's Stefan James competed hard in a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Johan Beigart. Gomez lost his match, 6-3, 6-0 in the No. 6 position to UCF's Danny Colón.

Bethune-Cookman will try and regroup for their second match of the year when they host Stetson University on Feb. 7 in Daytona Beach at 2 p.m. The match is a rescheduled match from last weekend's match which was rained out.