Temple men’s tennis closes regular season with shutout win

Temple beat Fairleigh Dickinson University, 7-0, on Sunday at the Penn Tennis Center to close out the regular season.

Temple (12-9, 1-2 American Athletic Conference) won two of the three doubles matches to claim the doubles point.

Senior Thomas Sevel and junior Alberto Caceres Casas defeated Knights freshmen Niclas Pietsch and Andris Gudins, 6-4. In Temple’s other doubles win, sophomores Eric Biscoveanu and Francisco Bohorquez defeated Knights senior William Bourne and freshman Maciej Autuch, 6-2.

In Temple’s only doubles loss, sophomore Juan Araoz and freshman Mark Wallner lost to Knights senior Adam Chan and freshman Moric Budinszky, 6-4.

In only his second match back from injury, Sevel defeated Pietsch, 7-6, 6-4, in the first flight.

“He’s finding a rhythm,” coach Steve Mauro said. “He’ll get another couple hitting sessions in before the conference tournament. I’m happy to have him back.”

Temple’s other five singles players also won in straight sets. Caceres Casas defeated Gudins, 6-3, 7-6, in the second flight. Araoz defeated Autuch, 6-2, 6-2, in the third position.

In the fourth flight, Biscoveanu defeated Budinszky, 6-1, 7-5. In the fifth flight, Bohorquez defeated Bourne, 6-1, 6-4. Wallner defeated Knights junior Miki Nobuzawa, 6-2, 6-1, in the sixth flight.

“The guys came here and were focused,” Mauro said. “They needed to play well in order to beat Fairleigh Dickinson. I’m really happy with their effort today. Hopefully, this will give us momentum going into the conference tournament.”

The Owls will head to Dallas for the American Athletic Conference tournament, where they’ll be the No. 8 seed and face No. 9 Southern Methodist on Thursday. The winner will face No. 1 Memphis on Friday.