The Men’s Tennis Team is back into their spring season. The Bucs competed at the ITA Kick Off Tournament Jan. 24 and 25 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Going into the ITA Kick Off playing against Wake Forest ranked seventh in the nation, the Bucs knew it would be a tough match, but they were prepared.
“We had too much confidence in Florida, so hopefully everything is going to be good at the ITA tournament,” said senior Miguel Este (Caracas, Venezuela). “It’s gonna be tough because we play against Wake Forest. They are the seventh in the nation.”
The team has two new freshmen on the team: Thiago Pernas (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and Francisco Erramuspe (Montevideo, Uruguay).
“I’m definitely curious as to how they will compete, they just got here so they need to adjust,” said head coach Martin Stiegwardt.
The Bucs faced Wake Forest on Friday, where they lost 4-2. Senior Juan Lugo (Maracay, Venezuela) and junior Yusuf Khamis (Cairo, Egypt) won their doubles match 7-6 (10-8), while junior Frazier Rengifo (Cali, Columbia) and red-shirt senior Chris Mikrovas (Athens, Greece) also came out on top at 7-6 (8-6). In singles, Khamis won his match 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, and Este won 7-5, 5-7, 2-5.
“We may suffer some bad losses, but we do have some wins that will help our rankings,” said Stiegwardt.
The Buccaneers also took on Penn State on Saturday, where they got their first win of the season 4-2. The team won five out of the six singles matches and one of their doubles matches.
“I’m always trying to schedule as hard as possible for us to play good teams we have to go on the road all the time,” said Stiegwardt. “These guys go through a lot of travel, time changes, surface changes, but I feel like that’s going to get us ready for SoCon and give us the best shot of getting a higher ranking too.”
The Bucs are set to compete against the University of Utah on Friday, Jan. 31, in Salt Lake, Utah.
