Men’s tennis kicks off spring season

Brady Fitch photo Noah Martens prepares to crush the ball during a 2024 match.

The Trojans traveled to the UNF Tennis Complex Saturday to take on the North Florida Ospreys. The Trojans came up short in their first match of the season, 4-3.

The match started with Bruno Vietri and Gianluca Filoramo of North Florida defeating Troy’s Henrique de Brito and Nicholas Simkin in doubles play 6-4.

However, Troy would respond as Luciano Alcocer and Hiro Sakamoto picked up a 6-4 win to push the doubles point to a deciding match. UNF took a 6-4 win to secure an early lead.

Sakamoto, a freshman, got the Trojans on the board with a 6-0, 6-3 singles win over Jean Deloziere of North Florida.

Yeray Andres Pastor also picked up a singles point for the Trojans with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 win against Vietri.

Along with Sakamoto and Pastor, Henrique de Brito also got singles points for the Trojans with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) over North Florida’s Joao Portugal.

Despite the solid performances, Andreas Scott, Youssef Labbene and Chase Healey all picked up singles points for North Florida to seal the victory.

On Monday in Miami, Troy dropped a 4-1 match to the Hurricanes. After winning the doubles point despite a 6-2 win from Sakamoto and Alcocer, the ACC team had to forfeit a singles line due to a lack of players.

However, the Trojans couldn’t take advantage of the point. Miami won in straight sets in every other singles match to take the victory.

Troy returns home on Friday, Jan. 17 to face Samford. The match starts at 1 p.m. at the Lunsford Tennis Complex.