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UNF hosts fourth annual Bedford Cup

UNF hosted the fourth annual Bedford Cup Tennis tournament on Friday, Sept. 12 through Monday, Sept. 15, opening the season. UNF’s Jack Findel-Hawkins won the Navy Flight Singles tournament by defeating the University of South Florida’s nationally-ranked No. 19, Roberto Cid.

Ospreys’ Findel-Hawkins and Lasse Muscheites reached the Doubles Finals, ultimately loosing to Cid and Sasha Gozun of USF. In a very successful showing for UNF, Zach Goldberg made the Gray Flight Finals, but lost to Stetson University’s Graham Ball.

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Doubles partners Muscheites (Left) and Findel-Hawkins (Right) celebrate a match well played.
Photo by Robert Curtis

This is the first year UNF has hosted the tournament, which is a yearly competition featuring all Division I tennis programs in the state of Florida. UNF hosted 10 teams in this tournament – Bethune-Cookman University, University of Florida, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida State University, University of Miami, Stetson University, University of Central Florida and University of South Florida. Two nationally-ranked players came from USF – No. 19 Cid and No. 119 Gozun.

Findel-Hawkins, a sophomore from Great Britain and recipient of Atlantic Sun Freshman of the Year honors, was named First-Team All-Conference and listed on the Atlantic Sun All-Freshman Team last season.

Findel-Hawkins defeated Gozun in the semifinals of the Navy Flight 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. He would go on to defeat Cid in the finals with identical scores, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

“We just kept doing the things we do in practice,” Findel-Hawkins said. “We practiced a lot on how we play in different situations and we were able to execute it really well against a couple of really good ranked opponents.”

Playing in front of the home crowd, he is now 2-0 against ranked opponents this year. “Just remembering the basics and really stepping it up towards the end of the weekend was why I was able to get those wins,” Findel-Hawkins said.

According to Findel-Hawkins, the large crowd that came out in support on Monday really helped him play through the sweltering heat.

Findel-Hawkins and Muscheites, a freshman from Germany, cruised through their doubles matches against teams such as FSU and UM, before losing to USF’s nationally-ranked doubles team, No. 12 Cid and Gozun. Findel-Hawkins and Muscheites suffered a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Cid and Gozun.

Sophomore Zack Goldberg beat Jordan Belga of UF 6-4, 6-4 to move on to the Gray Flight Finals. He then lost to Stetson’s Graham Ball 6-1, 4-6, 4-6.

“The ability to beat some of the players that he [Goldberg] did this weekend was amazing,” said Head Coach Mark Finnegan. “He’s done nothing but great things since coming back from break.”

Bethune-Cookman’s Gilbert Rotich won the Blue Flight Singles bracket and Arjun Watane of UCF captured the White Flight Singles title.

The Ospreys travel to Tulsa, Okla. on Sept. 27 through Oct. 3 for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-American Championships.

Gallery photos courtesy of UNF Athletic Communications

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Email Charles White at [email protected]

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