USF Athletics Weekend Round-Up

Women’s Tennis reaches semis in AAC Tournament with victories over Temple, C.

USF women’s tennis entered the American Athletic Conference Tournament in Tulsa as the no. 9 seed and decided to do the most with it, winning in comeback fashion vs. Temple in the first round and upsetting top-seeded C. in the second round.

On Wednesday, USF faced eighth seeded Temple where they dropped the doubles point on a deciding third court that came down to the wire. The team of Grace Schumacher and Margriet Timmermans won their court 6-1 to start and the team of Laura Pellicer and Selin Yaylali narrowly dropped the deciding court 6-4. In singles play, the matches seesawed for most of the afternoon with Temple winning the first point, Sierra Berry winning her’s in straight sets and Temple taking the next to take a 3-1 lead. Then the Bulls put it in overdrive. Schumacher won the next court in straight sets, and Margriet Timmermans and Pellicer both came back from dropping the first set to win their courts and secure the opening round comeback victory and a rematch with C.

On Thursday, the Bulls shocked the conference by upsetting top-seeded C. 4-3 to snap a six-game losing streak with the no. 19 G. Knights. It looked to be more of the same from their 4-0 loss a week earlier as the Bulls dropped the doubles point in straight courts and dropped the first two singles matches in straight sets to go down 3-0. And then the tides changed. Amalie Boy, Pellicer, and Schumacher all won their courts in straight sets to tie the game up at three and Sierra Berry secured the victory for the Bulls in three sets.

On Friday, the magic came to an end as the Bulls dropped the semifinal to eventual-champion Memphis 4-0. They dropped the doubles point in three courts and lost their first three singles’ matches in straight sets.

USF concludes their season 7-16 with two very exciting tournament victories.

No. 41 Men’s Tennis beats C., loses to SMU in semis of AAC Tournament

USF entered the American Athletic Conference Tournament in Tulsa as the four seed in a tournament in which they’ve reached the final in every season since its inception and although they didn’t make it this time around, it was at the hands of top-seeded SMU.

On Friday, the Bulls faced no. 44 C. for the second straight week and beat them again in similar fashion, 4-3. USF secured the doubles point after dropping the first court, but the teams of Rithvik Bollipalli and Bruno Oliveira and Alvin Tudorica and Gomez Montesa won their courts. Then singles play heated up as usual when these two teams face each other. Oliveira secured the first singles point of the day winning 6-0, 6-2, but C. took the next two points to tie it up at two all. Chase Ferguson took care of business 6-1, 7-5, but Gomez Montesa dropped his match to tie up the match again with all eyes on Antonio Muniz who delivered the tiebreak victory and win against the G. Knights for the second straight week.

On Saturday, the Bulls faced top-seeded no. 26 SMU and fell 4-2 in the semfinals. They dropped the doubles point in straight courts, but Ivan Yatsuk delivered with a singles victory in straight sets to tie up the score. SMU took the next two before Muniz brought the Bulls a point closer, but USF couldn’t complete the comeback.

USF (14-10) is now 20-3 in the conference tournament with only the loss vs. SMU outside of the final round. The Bulls will learn their NCAA Tournament fate on Monday, May 2 while individual selections will be made on Tuesday, May 3.

Women’s Golf finished in fifth place in AAC Championships

USF posted scores of 299, 305, and 301 for a score of +41 - only one stroke behind fourth place SMU in the American Athletic Conference Championships in Pinehurst, N.C. The final round score of 301 was the second best in the tournament for that round. Sophomore Melanie Green turned in another top-10 performance ranking sixth with a +7. It’s her seventh top-10 finish on the season. USF shot 162 total pars which were third-most in the tournament. The fifth-place finish is tied for the best finish for Women’s Golf since they placed third in the 2015-16 season.

No. 38 Men’s Golf, Run Youprayong finish in second place in AAC Championships

Men’s golf shot a final round 271 (-17) to climb to second place in the American Athletic Conference Championships at the Southern Hills Golf Club in Brooksville scoring the best card in the final round and only behind no. 43 SMU who shot -29 on the weekend. The Bulls finished -20 scoring 286, 287, and 271 to narrowly miss back-to-back team championships. Run Youprayong also impressed scoring 71, 67, and 67 with a card of -11 to tie for second place in the tournament. Defending champion Albin Bergstrom finished -7 with a score of 69, 71 and 69 over the weekend.

Softball splits games vs Tulsa, rain washes away rubber match

The Bulls headed to Tulsa to take on the Golden Hurricane in a three-game series that was limited to two thanks to inclement weather on Sunday.

On Friday, USF came out on top in a 2-1 pitcher’s duel that saw both teams get six hits each and combine for 16 strikeouts. Georgina Corrick was her usual dominate self, going the distance giving up only one earned run - a solo home run in the first - and nine strikeouts. Vivian Ponn delivered the tying home run in the fourth and Alexis John’s sacrifice fly scored the game-clincher in the seventh. Corrick has 28 wins on the season and 331 strikeouts - both tops in the nation.

On Saturday, USF fell to Tulsa 8-0 in a run-rule loss that went five innings. The Bulls started Erin Poepping in the circle and she proceeded to give up three runs in 0.1 innings of work. Lexie Kopko and Antionette Hill completed the game giving up a total of eight hits, eight earned runs, four walks, and zero strikeouts combined. The Bulls only mustered five hits and didn’t record a strikeout on the afternoon.

USF (36-13, 6-5) are in third place in the AAC and will head home to face Houston (23-22-1, 7-6-1) for a three-game series next weekend.

Baseball wins first conference series of the season at Cincinnati

USF looking to climb the American Athletic Conference Standings took two of three from Cincinnati for their first conference series victory of the season.

The opening game on Friday was a thriller with the Bulls coming out on top 10-9. USF jumped out to a 3-0 lead thanks to a Daniel Cantu 2-RBI double, but a couple of errors brought the Bearcats right back putting up five runs in the fifth and taking a 5-3 lead. With an 8-7 deficit, the Bulls loaded the bases in the top of the ninth and a sacrifice fly and Sonny Rao 2-RBI double retook the lead 10-8. Then Cincinnati threatened to walk it off. Two walks by Hunter Mink and an infield single on an error loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth. A sacrifice fly put the Bearcats within one. With one out, Mink walked the bases loaded and then proceeded to strike out the final two to complete the save - his eighth on the season. Sonny Rao went 3-5 with 3-RBI and Daniel Cantu went 2-4 with 4-RBI. Brad Lord had the start going four innings and giving up two earned runs (four total.)

On Saturday, it was all Bearcats in a 13-2 run-rule loss. The Bulls only collected four hits on the afternoon and only struck out four times. It was a 1-1 game going into the home-half of the fourth where Cinncinati put up a four spot on freshman Jack Cebert and eight in the sixth. The conference has a 10-run rule at seven innings in place so this one ended early. The Bearcats had 13 runs on 10 hits.

On Sunday, the roles were reversed as all USF batters recorded a hit in a 19-5 victory in the rubber match. The Bulls registered 21 hits and put up crooked numbers in five innings - including six in the ninth. Ethan Brown started the game giving up four runs in 5.1 innings, but registered seven strikeouts in the win. Seven Bulls had multi-hit games including freshmen Jackson Mayo and Marcus Brodil with 3 RBI and Bobby Boser with four RBI.

In a game in which multiple players were out due to a violation of team rules, the freshmen really stepped up. Freshman Sonny Rao went 4-6 with 2 RBI, Mayo and Brodil went 3-6, and Boser went 3-5. Joaquin Monque also slugged his third home run on the year in the ninth.

USF (23-17, 4-8)—winners of four of their last five—will head home to play Houston next weekend in a three-game series.