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SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 34 Florida State men’s tennis team (11-5, 2-3) earned a hard-fought 4-2 victory over No. 23 Notre Dame (12-6, 3-2) Friday in South Bend, Indiana. Redshirt freshman John Bernard won the clinching point for the Seminoles, the first of his career.
“It was a good team win,” head coach Dwayne Hultquist said. “Playing at Notre Dame is always a tough place to play. JB really stepped it up to clinch it for us. I was really pleased with him being able to close it out.”
The match began outdoors where the Noles won doubles on courts one and two. Maks Silagy and Joshua Karpenschif won in their first appearance on court one while a new pairing of Loris Pourroy and Andreja Petrovic claimed court two.
Rain forced the teams indoors where Notre Dame took control at the start, winning four first sets. FSU quickly responded with five wins in the second set.
Pourroy, on court one, and Youcef Rihane, on court five, each won in two sets to set up the Noles for victory.
“I was pleased with how the guys dug down in the second sets, and it gave us an opportunity for many different ways to win,” Hultquist said. “Youcef did a great job of getting off quick, and Loris played one of the better ACC players, a guy who had beaten him last time, and got revenge today.”
After dropping the first set, Bernard and Richard Thongoana both fought back to win the second set and advance to the third. Bernard clinched the fourth point for the Seminoles just as Thongoana was leading 40-30 tied 5-5 on court four.
Florida State is in action again on Sunday at Louisville at 12 p.m. in search of the weekend sweep. The Noles will return home for a match against Tennessee Tech on Saturday, March 26 at 11 a.m.
For more information on the Seminole Men’s Tennis program, check Seminoles.com and follow us on social media at FSUMTennis (IG) and @FSU_MTennis (TW).
