The UNF Men’s Tennis team set out to join their classmates of the Women’s team in Tennis as conference champions, facing the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles.  It wasn’t meant to be as the Eagles won the match, 4-2, securing the ASUN conference championship and the automatic bid to the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship.

The Ospreys (14-11), met the Eagles (14-8) in the Conference Finals for the first time in four seasons.

UNF took an early 2-0 lead on the day, but FGCU fought back for the win.

UNF won two of the three doubles matches early to take that lead, but FGCU took over in the singles to fight back and secure the crown.

The Eagles’ Junior Felipe Ramirez got the FGCU scoring going with a straight sets win over Freshman Dominik Barton (6-4, 6-3).

FGCU then took the lead with Senior Felipe Escobar defeating Senior Till Von Winning 6-1,6-1 to put the Eagles ahead 3-2.

Ultimately, the Eagles finished out the match, and took home the trophy after tough battles.Junior Marcelo Tebet of FGCU defeated Sophomore Nilo Duarte 6-3,4-6, and 7-5. Senior Javier Fernandez put the final nail in the coffin after defeating Junior Federico Nani 6-3, 6-4.

UNF Senior Sahil Deshmukh ended the season named to the All-ASUN Tournament Team and tied for a team-leading 21 singles wins on the season.

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