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Men's Tennis Swarms Red Storm, Advances in NCAA Tournament

Behind the nation's #2 ranked player in Roberto Cid, the Bulls will face the Gators tomorrow at 1 p.m. for a Sweet 16 berth.

By Collin Sherwin
GoUSFBulls.com

This piece was written by Carl Zee:

USF Men's Tennis opened their 2016 NCAA Tournament with a 4-0 first round victory over St. John's today at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville.

Each team entered the match on a seven-meet winning streak, and both were fresh off winning their third-consecutive conference championship. The American Conference's Bulls reached the Sweet 16 of this tournament in 2015, and the Red Storm (21-5) have claimed the Big East's automatic bid for the past three seasons.

USF took the doubles point behind the #32 ranked team of Dominic Cotrone and Peter Bertran winning their set 6-1, followed by Roberto Cid and Igancio Gonzalez-Muniz taking their set 6-4.

Cotrone then took the first singles match 6-1, 6-4 on Court #3 over Vaidik Munshaw, followed by Bertran winning 6-2, 7-5 over Dusan Vukicevic on Court #4. Sasha Gozun would clinch the win with a comeback victory 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 against two-time Big East Player of the Year Roberto Livi.

USF will face the #9 Florida Gators tomorrow at 1:00, who steamrolled the UNF Ospreys 4-0 later in the day, dropping only one set across all matches. Tomorrow's tie will be filled with ranked matches as Gozun and Kalyuzhnyy will face the #1 doubles team in the nation of Diego Hidalgo and Gordon Watson, while the nation's #2 singles player Roberto Cid faces one of his toughest opponents of the year in tenth-ranked Diego Hidalgo. Other ranked matches will include #47 Dominic Cotrone facing #37 Elliot Orkin and Sasha Gozun facing #53 Alfredo Perez.

The winner of tomorrow's match will play the winner of the Lubbock, Texas Regional in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 20.

Doubles
#28 Gozun/Kalyuzhnyy (USF) vs. #85 Munshaw/Hejhal (STJ) 5-4 (unfinished)
#32 Cotrone/Bertran (USF) def. Skripnik/Nune Aguilera (STJ) 6-1
Cid/Gonzalez-Muniz (USF) def. Livi/Every (STJ) 6-4

Singles
#2 R. Cid (USF) vs. L. Hejhal (STJ) 4-6, 6-4, 4-1 (unfinished)
S. Gozun (USF) def. R. Livi (STJ) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
#47 D. Cotrone (USF) def. V. Munshaw (STJ) 6-1, 6-4
P. Bertran (USF) def. D. Vukicevic (STJ) 6-2, 7-5
J. Roberts (USF) vs. A. Crapcenco (STJ) 6-3, 2-6, 5-4 (unfinished)
A. Nunez Aguilera (STJ) vs. V. Kalyuzhnyy (USF) 7-6 (7-4), 5-5 (unfinished)