MTEN Preview: USF & UCF
3/4/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas - Riding a three-match winning streak, the No. 3 TCU men's tennis team will continue action on the road by traveling to Florida to face No. 17 USF and UCF on March 5 and 6, respectively.
The Horned Frogs (8-2) will begin the trip in Tampa, Fla., where they will take on the Bulls at Noon, CT, at the USF Varsity Tennis Complex on Saturday. The trip will then continue to Orlando, Fla., on Sunday where the team will take on the Knights at 11 a.m., CT, at the UCF Tennis Complex.
TCU Notables
TCU has picked up wins in its last three matches over Cal Poly (7-0), No. 36 Wisconsin (5-2) and No. 11 Illinois (5-2) to move back up into the top-5 of the Oracle/ITA rankings at No. 3. This weekend will mark the last of a four-match road swing before the team returns home for four straight home matches from March 15-22.
In the singles rankings, TCU still has four ranked players in Cameron Norrie (2), Alex Rybakov (24), Guillermo Nuñez (49) and Eduardo Nava (99). Norrie is currently riding a five-match winning streak and sits at 12-4 overall this season and 6-1 in dual matches. Nava is also 6-1 in dual matches and has won his last two matches against ranked foes.
In doubles, Nuñez and Rybakov lead the team with five overall wins in dual matches with a 5-2 mark at the No. 3 position. Hudson Blake and Reese Stalder have picked up four wins this season on court two and clinched the doubles point in the last match against Illinois.
Scouting the Bulls
After winning four straight matches, USF dropped its last match to No. 9 Oklahoma State, 4-1, and are looking to rebound against the Frogs.
The Bulls have two ranked singles players in No. 5 Roberto Cid and No. 35 Dominic Cotrone. Cid is 9-1 in dual match play at the top position and has defeated six ranked opponents in those matches. Cotrone is playing at the No. 2 spot and has gone 4-2 in matches completed in dual action.
Cotrone is also ranked in doubles at No. 46 with partner Justin Roberts. The duo are 5-2 this season at the top position on court one with one win over ranked opponents from LSU.
Scouting the Knights
UCF is coming off two straight losses on the road to Arizona (4-3) and Tulane (6-1) after defeating UConn (4-0) to open the American Athletic Conference season.
Inaki Espindola and Nico De Fraia lead the team with 10 wins a piece in singles with both players posting five wins in dual match play. Tyler Pate and Jose Sangroniz have the best record in doubles, as the duo are 4-2 this season with all matches being played at the No. 2 position.
All-Time Series
TCU and USF will be facing off for only the fourth time in program history with the Frogs winning the last two meetings to go up 2-1 in the series record. The Bulls won the first match on neutral grounds, 4-1, back in 2002, while TCU won the next meeting in 2003, 4-1, on neutral grounds and picked up a 4-3 victory over USF a season ago in Fort Worth. This will mark the first meeting between the teams in Tampa.
This will be the first-ever meeting between TCU and UCF.
Live Scoring
Live scoring of the match against USF can be found at GoUSFBulls.com. Final results and a recap will be available at GoFrogs.com following the completion of competition on each day. In-match updates can also be found by following TCU men's tennis on twitter (@TCUMensTennis).
Players Mentioned
