No. 19 Alabama Men's Tennis Wins Yet Another Thriller
3/12/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama men's tennis stepped out of conference on Wednesday, playing South Florida (8-3, 3-0 CUSA) in a 4-3 contest in the second of a six-match home stand at Tuscaloosa's Varsity Courts.
The matched marked the fourth time this season that the team match was still up for grabs with only one match remaining on court. This time Tide junior Stephen Mitchell answered the call to step up and take his team to victory in the last match on court. In the third set Mitchell broke South Florida's Renato Silveira to go up 4-3 in the set. That would be all Mitchell needed as he held serve the rest of the way to win the set 6-4.
"It's the first time I've clinched a match all season. It feels good," Mitchell said. "I know it will make me more confident the next time I'm in that situation.
"I was serving big and that kept me in the game. I wasn't returning extremely well, so I knew I had to hang in on my serve. I did and that's all it took."
Alabama (13-2, 2-2 SEC) had another solid effort from No. 3 singles player Chris Gostek. Gostek upped his record to 13-1 on the season with a win at No. 3 singles.
"I had some chances to break late in the first set but I didn't capitalize." Gostek said, "I was able to keep my focus and pull it through in the breaker. It's hard to play top 25 teams week-in and week-out, but regardless of whether or not its an SEC match you have to stay focused and be ready to go."
Doubles play has seen a steady improvement since league play began with the Tide winning four of their last five matches. Senior Bradley Friedman and junior Stephen Mitchell have teamed in the last five matches as well, winning four, including an 8-5 decision today.
"We're attackers, we love playing aggressive and that helps us control the match," Friedman said. "Both of us are on and we feel that when we are playing well we're very hard to beat. He helps me. He's an incredible doubles player and he makes me better."
Alabama hosts Mississippi State on Saturday at 2 p.m. before welcoming Ole Miss on Sunday at 1 p.m. No. 36 Mississippi State is 4-6 overall and 0-3 in league play.
Alabama will be considered the underdog going into Sunday's match. The Rebels are ranked 6th in the nation and are 9-2 on the season, with a 3-1 Southeastern Conference mark. Ole Miss will play Auburn on Friday before visiting Tuscaloosa.
In the latest Omni Hotels Collegiate Tennis rankings Alabama is ranked 19th after splitting SEC matches this past weekend. Three Tide singles players and one doubles squad were also listed in the rankings.
Complete Match Results Follow:
Singles
1. Uli Kiendl (USF) d. Maxim Belski (UA) 6-4, 6-4
2. Stephen Mitchell (UA) d. Renato Silveira (USF) 7-6, 6-4, 6-4
3. Chris Gostek (UA) d. Paco Antelo (USF) 7-6, 6-2
4. Andres Maroldt (USF) d. Geoff Hiscox (UA) 7-6, 4-6, 6-5
5. Christian Brodersen (UA) d. Federico Barton (USF) 6-3, 6-2
6. Jorge Escallon (USF) d. William Boyles (UA) 6-2, 6-0
