Men’s Tennis Wins USF Invitational AKA The American Conference Championship

The #SpringOfRings continued for the second day in a row as USF men’s tennis defeated C. 4-1 for their fourth consecutive American Conference Championship.

The win reversed a 4-2 loss to C. on the same courts several weeks ago, and clinched another postseason berth for a team with four NCAA Tournament victories the past three seasons.

“I couldn’t be any happier for the guys,” said first-year head coach Ashley Fisher, who was an assistant on last year’s team and replaced Matt Hill in the offseason. “They really deserved it. They worked hard every day. I was just so impressed with the way they fought through a lot of adversity today. They dropped the doubles point but there was no sort of panic.”

The Bulls did lose doubles point to open the day (in collegiate tennis there’s three doubles matches, winner of two of three or all three gets one point, then six singles matches for one point each), but ran away and hid from the Knights as soon as the individual matches began.

Moldovan senior Sasha Gozun was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, playing at #1 singles all weekend and picking up a 6-4, 6-3 win over the Knights Korey Lovett in the final. Fellow senior Vadym Kalyuzhnyy made quick work of Chris Barrus 6-4, 6-2 at #5, and freshman Jakob Wojcik defeated Kalman Boyd 6-1, 7-6 at #6.

The clincher came from Justin Roberts at #2, whose 6-4, 6-4 victory began the celebration.

Gozun and the Ukranian Kalyuzhnyy will end their USF careers with four AAC Championship rings each. “Whenever you come to college tennis, you want that feeling. It’s just amazing to have four in a row,” said Gozun.

The NCAA Selection Show where both the USF men’s and women’s tennis will find out their postseason draw is May 2nd.

Quotable:

“We look forward to playing UCF again in the conference championships." - Ashley Fisher after the Bulls loss to the Knights on April 1st.