Men’s tennis eyes fourth consecutive conference championship
USF is looking to continue its dominance in the AAC with a fourth straight conference title.
ORACLE FILE PHOTO
They didn’t even have to play the whole match.
With its fourth straight AAC title in sight, USF men’s tennis rolled past Memphis to close out the regular season Monday afternoon at the USF Varsity Courts.
The Bulls swiped the doubles point away from Memphis to begin the match, then never turned back.
Three wins via Alberto Barroso-Campos, Vadym Kalyuzhnyy and Peter Bertran in singles gave the Bulls a 4-0 lead, ending the match with three games still in play – all of which the Bulls held the advantage in.
With Memphis out of the way, coach Ashley Fisher and the Bulls are turning their attention towards winning the programs’ fourth consecutive AAC title in the conference tournament that begins on Wednesday.
“We’ve played particularly well against these conference opponents,” Fisher said. “If we play well, we feel like we can beat those teams.”
USF will enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed for the second consecutive season, and will play either No. 9 UConn, or No. 8 East Carolina on Thursday morning at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.
“We aren’t really too concerned about where we’re seeded,” Fisher said. “Wherever we are, we’re going to have to beat some good teams to win (the conference), and we’re ready to beat whoever’s in front of us.”
Winning the conference would guarantee USF a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Regardless of what happens this weekend however, Fisher said that the Bulls have proven themselves enough in the regular season to earn an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament.
“I feel like at the least we’ll be an at-large bid, so we’re not really thinking too much about (not making NCAA tournament),” Fisher said.
On the season thus far, USF is 5-1 against conference opponents, with its only loss coming against UCF, which is No. 3 in the AAC.
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