April 21, 2008

Lincoln, NE (UWIRE) -- The UCF Men's Tennis team's season was one of ups and downs; the Conference USA Championship was no different.

The Knights won their first match of the tournament, a 4-2 win over UAB on Friday, and then followed that up with a 4-0 loss to No. 1 seed Tulsa in Saturday's semifinal.

It was a thorough sweep for the Golden Hurricane, who won the two doubles matches and the three singles matches that finished. Tulsa was also ahead in the three other singles matches when play ended.

Sinan Sudas and Blaze Schwartz came closest to a win for UCF when they lost 9-8 (7-5) in their doubles match.

The Knights were able to get off to a much better start in their first match, a 4-2 win over UAB.

UCF started off the match with two doubles wins, and was able to continue that success in the singles matches.

Sudas, Brock Sakey and Tarek Ben Soltane all won singles matches, with Sudas winning 6-4, 6-1 in the No. 1 spot.

The win was the third in a row for the Knights, and that was their second-longest streak of the season.

The Knights end the season with a 12-9 record.

UCF coach Bobby Cashman was excited despite the results of the final match.

"I saw a vast improvement from everyone throughout the season," Cashman said in a press release. "We are going to take this season and tournament and use it as motivation for the summer and fall."

(C) 2008 Daily Nebraskan via UWIRE