April 18, 2008

IRVING, Texas - The No. 4 seed UCF Knights upended No. 5 seed UAB Blazers, 4-2, Friday morning in the opening match of the 2008 Conference USA Men's Tennis Championship held at the new Turpin Tennis Stadium located on SMU¡¦s campus in Dallas.

UCF 4, UAB 2 Box Score

UCF jumped out to a 3-1 lead before claiming a 4-2 victory. The Knights single points came at the No. 1, 4 and 5 spots as well as winning the doubles point.

Picking up the team¡¦s second point of the day was junior Tarek Ben Soltane at No. 5 singles, defeating Alex Emery, 6-2, 6-4. Senior Sinan Sudas cruised to a 6-4, 6-1 win over Slawek Szeremeta at the top spot and Brock Sakey clinched the victory with a three-set match, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 over Brian Ly of UCF at No. 4 singles.

UCF opened the match by winning the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3. Johan Beigart and Niko Overkemping defeated Szeremeta and Tyrone Ewels of UAB, 8-4, while Sudas and Blaze Schwartz downed Emery and Dan Cornei, 8-5.

The Knights were able to reverse a loss to UAB from the 2007 championship, where UAB won 4-3.

UCF advances to face the winner of the Tulsa and Southern Miss match that¡¦s currently in action. Semifinals take place on Saturday with 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. match times, followed by the championship match on Sunday at Noon. The C-USA champion receives the league¡¦s automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Championships.

Turpin Tennis Stadium is just south of the Crum Basketball Center, which is located at the site of where the Haggar Tennis Stadium once stood. Tennis fans can watch live scoring at www.SMUMustangs.com or www.ConferenceUSA.com. Single day ticket prices are just $5 (adults) and $3 (youth), while an all-tournament pass is only $10 (adults) and $6 (youth). Groups of 10-or-more can purchase tickets for just $3 (single day) and $6 (tournament pass).

Match 1: UCF 4, UAB 2
DOUBLES
D1 Beigart/Overkemping, UCF def. Szeremeta/Ewels, UAB, 8-4
D2 Sakey/Romano, UCF vs. Brugues/Soriano, UAB, 7-4 (DNF)
D3 Sudas/Schwartz, UCF def. Emery/Cornei, UAB, 8-5

Order of finish: 3, 1

SINGLES
S1 Sinan Sudas, UCF def. Slawek Szeremeta, UAB, 6-4, 6-1
S2 Hans Spangenberg, UAB def. Niko Overkemping, UCF, 6-3, 6-4
S3 Johan Beigart, UCF vs. Dan Cornei, UAB, 7-6 (7), 7-5, DNF
S4 Brock Sakey, UCF def. Brian Ly, UAB, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
S5 Johan Beigart, UCF def. Alex Emery, UAB, 6-2, 6-4
S6 Tyrone Ewels, UAB def. Claudio Romano, UCF, 7-6, 6-4

Order of finish: 5, 2, 1, 6, 4

2008 C-USA MEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP
Turpin Tennis Stadium / Dallas, Texas / April 18-20
APRIL
Friday, 18
Match 1: No. 5 UCF def. No. 4 UAB, 4-2
Match 2: No. 8 Tulsa vs. No. 1 Tulsa / 11 a.m.
Match 3: No. 6 Memphis vs. No. 3 SMU / 2 p.m.
Match 4: No. 7 East Carolina vs. No. 2 Rice / 5 p.m.

Saturday, 19
Match 5: UCF vs. winner of match 2 / 11 a.m.
Match 6: winner Match 3 and 4 / 2 p.m.

Sunday, 20
Match 7: winner Match 5 and 6 / 12 p.m.

All championship times are Central and will be played at the new Turpin Tennis Stadium.