The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's tennis team dropped a 5-2 match at North Florida today.  The Mocs were playing without their No. 1 singles player, senior Niklas Gerdes, but were still in this tough road match. UTC falls to 12-6 overall while North Florida moved to 8-2. 

Senior Turner Voges and junior Luke Plaisted won at No. 3 doubles.  Senior Simon Bustamante and sophomore Kerim Hyatt had match point at 5-4, but ended up losing in a tiebreaker [7-6 (2)] at No. 1 doubles.

The Mocs grabbed the first set in three of the six singles matches. Sophomore Tomas Rodriguez slid into the top spot for Gerdes and scored a (6-4, 6-1) win over Nilo Duarte.  This was Rodriguez's second career win at No. 1 and the first this season.  He was 14-2 at No 2 with a seven-match winning streak coming into today.

Freshman Jeffrey Dewald also scored a three-set win at No. 3.  He was 13-3 at No 4 before moving up today. 

"I told the team, that we have really evolved as a program," stated head coach Chuck Merzbacher.  "With our No. 1 being out, they all moved up and stepped up. "We had a match point for the dubs point and a let cord was the difference."
 
"In singles, Tomas took charge at No. 1, while Jeffrey played No. 3 and got the second point for the Mocs. Turner and Kerim where in some tough three set battles but came up a little short. I was super pleased with our effort across the board."
 
Up next for the Mocs is Saturday match at Kennesaw State.  The next home match is scheduled for March 29 against UNCG.
 
North Florida 5, Chattanooga 2
3/11/2020 at Jacksonville, Fla.
(UNF Tennis Complex)
Singles competition
1. Tomas Rodriguez (UTC) def. Nilo Duarte (UNF) 6-4, 6-1
2. Dominik Barton (UNF) def. Kerim Hyatt (UTC) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
3. Jeffrey Dewald (UTC) def. Federico Nani (UNF) 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-2
4. Matt Carroll (UNF) def. Simon Bustamante (UTC) 6-3, 6-3
5. Jorge Nunez (UNF) def. Turner Voges (UTC) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
6. Patrick Kotan (UNF) def. Jacob Marshall (UTC) 6-3, 6-4
 
Doubles competition
1. Dominik Barton/Matt Carroll (UNF) def. Kerim Hyatt/Simon Bustamante (UTC) 7-6 (7-2)
2. Federico Nani/Jorge Nunez (UNF) def. Tomas Rodriguez/Kaisei Kuroki (UTC) 6-4
3. Turner Voges/Luke Plaisted (UTC) def. Patrick Kotan/Nilo Duarte (UNF) 6-4
Match Notes:
Chattanooga 12-6
North Florida 8-2
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (4,1,6,2,3,5)
79 degrees, mostly cloudy - 43 percent humidity
Official: Kendyl Jennings T-3:19 A-31