ECU Nips UCF 4-3 In C-USA Finale

Feb. 24, 2008

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Jaroslav Horvath and Henrique Viana's 9-8 victory over Johan Beigart and Brock Sakey in a No. 1 doubles match earned the Pirates' opening point which later proved to be the difference as East Carolina edged UCF 4-3 in Conference USA men's tennis action Sunday morning at the Racquet Club of Hattiesburg.

The Pirates' win over the Knights successfully completed the three-day league slate scheduled as part of the C-USA Shootout - a satellite tourney which opened with consecutive 4-3 setbacks to UAB and Southern Miss on Friday and Saturday.

With the victory, East Carolina improved to 6-6 overall and 1-2 in the conference play while UCF dropped to 3-5 and 1-2.

After ECU's Bryan Oakley and Stephen Whitwell opened doubles play with an 8-1 win over Danny Colon and Tarek Ben Soltane at the No. 3 slot, the Knights evened the ledger when Claudio Romano and Sinan Sudas outlasted Aleksey Kochetov and Henrik Skalmerud 9-7. Horvath and Viana followed with the tight triumph at No. 1 to give East Carolina an early 1-0 team lead.

In singles play, the Pirates picked up victories at the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 6 positions as Viana cruised past Sudas (6-4, 6-2), Kochetov defeated Sakey (6-4, 6-4) and Whitwell disposed of Colon 6-1, 6-2.

The Knights used wins by Beigart over Horvath (6-0, 5-7, 7-5) No. 1, Soltane over Skalmerud (6-2, 6-1) at No. 4 and Romano over Oakley (6-1, 6-1) at No. 5 to capture the other three matches.

The Pirates will return to action Saturday when they host Coastal Carolina at the ECU Tennis Complex beginning at 1 p.m.

EAST CAROLINA 4, UCF 3
Singles Play
No. 1 - Johan Beigart (UCF) def. Jaroslav Horvath (ECU); 6-0, 5-7, 7-5
No. 2 - Henrique Viana (ECU) def. Sinan Sudas (UCF); 6-4, 6-2
No. 3 - Aleksey Kochetov (ECU) def. Brock Sakey (UCF); 6-4, 6-4
No. 4 - Tarek Ben Soltane (UCF) def. Henrik Skalmerud (ECU); 6-2, 6-1
No. 5 - Claudio Romano (UCF) def. Bryan Oakley (ECU); 6-1, 6-1
No. 6 - Stephen Whitwell (ECU) def. Danny Colón (UCF); 6-1, 6-2
Doubles Play
No. 1 - Horvath/Viana (ECU) def. Beigart/Sakey (UCF); 9-8 (7-4)
No. 2 - Romano/Sudas (UCF) def. Kochetov/Skalmerud (ECU); 9-7
No. 3 - Oakley/Whitwell (ECU) def. Colon/Soltane (UCF); 8-1
Team Records: East Carolina 6-6, 1-2; UCF 3-5, 1-2

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