Florida State University Athletics
Aubone And Bowles Advance To Second Round Of 2008 NCAA Doubles Tournament With Thrilling Three-Set Win Against Rice
5/22/2008 12:00:00 PM | Men's Tennis
May 22, 2008
“It was an attitude match and we just came away with it,” FSU head coach Dwayne Hultquist said. “Both of them conveyed being winners and they never give up until the final point is over.”
The Seminole duo lost the first set 6-4, but came back to win the next two sets in a pair of tiebreakers. In set two, Aubone and Bowles fought back to stay alive and eventually won 7-6(3) to send the match into a third-set. With FSU down 6-5, Rice had a match point at 40-30, but Aubone and Bowles took the point and the game and cruised to a shutout win in the tiebreaker to advance to the second round.
“I thought we played really well in the two tiebreakers,” Hultquist said. “They both played really well and after facing that match point we were able to cruise in that final tiebreaker.”
With the victory it gave Aubone and Bowles 28 doubles’ wins on the season breaking the school record set by Jeff Groslimond and Chris Westerhof in 2005. FSU will face
“It’s really remarkable with it being their first year playing together,” Hultquist said. “I’m just excited that they could do that and hopefully there is more records to come.”
Earlier in the day Aubone’s season came to an end in the second round of the 2008 NCAA Tennis Championships in
“It was a tough match today, he played well and it could have gone either way,” FSU head coach Dwayne Hultquist said. “He played a good a match against a good player and fought all the way to the end.”
The sophomore All-American dominated the first set in impressive fashion winning 6-1. The two competitors played a lot of long hard points, but in the end it was Aubone who came out on top on most of them.
“He [Aubone] came out really strong,” Hultquist said. “They played some long points and he won those points to get the early advantage.”
In the second set, Koniecko broke Aubone early and while he was able to fight back, in the end it was the Buckeye who took the second 6-2. The third set was a tight battle that saw Koniecko get the only break of the set at 1-1. That was all he needed, as Aubone could not recover and was eliminated from the tournament 6-4.
“He got down an early break in the second and fought back, he had a few chances but Koniecko really elevated his game,” Hultquist said. “Jean-Yves played a good third set, but he had a few unforced errors in the game he was broken and Koniecko once again played really well to close it out.”
Aubone ends his dual-match season with an 18-8 record with almost all of his matches being played at the No. 1 position. He was named ACC Player of the Week once and he was a member of the All-ACC team. His strong season also earned the
“He had a great year in singles, and he came to play every single match,” Hultquist said. “He made a huge jump from last year and became one of the best players in the country.”
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