Miami Falls In 4-3 Battle To Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Miami men’s tennis team dropped its match, 4-3, to No. 27 Louisville in a hard-fought battle on Sunday afternoon.

Louisville (10-4 overall, 1-1 ACC) kicked off the match clinching the doubles point over Miami (8-5, 2-1). The No. 20 ranked pair of Etienne Donnet and Natan Rodrigues defeated No. 27 Vladislav Melnic and Adrien Burdet, 6-1, at the top court. The Cardinals then clinched the advantage with Will Mayew and Andre Steinbach taking court two over Nacho Serra Sanchez and Sam Baumgartner, 6-3.

When play was halted, Antonio Prat and Martin Katz were tied 4-4 on Louisville’s Piet Steveker and Enrique Pena.

The Cardinals continued the momentum and claimed the first singles win with No. 20 Donnet defeating Melnic, 6-1, 6-2, on court one. Miami then tied the match at two-all with wins on court three and six. Prat dominated Steinbach to win court three, 6-1, 6-3, while Baumgartner took court six, 6-1, 6-4, over Kosuke Nakanishi.

The remaining three courts went back-and-forth. Louisville’s Rodrigues claimed court two against Katz, 7-6 (3), 6-1, followed by a Miami victory on court five from Burdet over Steveker, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

Coming down to the last court to decide the team win, Serra Sanchez started the match strong by taking the first set. No. 72 Mayew didn’t back down and took straight sets to win court four, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4.

The Hurricanes will return home to face Penn in a non-conference clash on March 7 at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center.