'Canes Tennis Continue Their Winning Streaks at Home

The Miami Hurricanes tennis teams both continued their respective winning streaks going over the past week, with the Men’s team taking down three out-of-conference opponents while the Women easily defeated a high-ranked OOC foe.

After defeating Georgia Tech and getting back into the national rankings, the Canes men first took on Troy University. The Trojans put up more resistance than expected, but the Canes came away with a 5-2 win. They next faced Boston University and this was another one they were expected to win and they didn't disappoint, winning 6-1. The third challenge was the biggest as No. 58 Wisconsin came into town. The Badgers have had a decent season, defeating a couple of nationally ranked opponents (No. 54 Denver and No. 59 Marquette) and climbing back up into the rankings themselves. This was one the Canes absolutely needed to win if they hoped to avoid only their eighth losing season in the history of the program.

The Canes came out swinging, easily taking the doubles point and going on to take all six opening sets of the singles matches. The Badgers slowly started to put up some resistance after the Canes’ Omar Aly and Gabriel Flores won to make it a 3-0 advantage. While Wilfredo Gonzales struggled to put away his opponent for the fourth win, Diego Soto came back after dropping the second set and finally secured the Canes’ very impressive win. They have now won their last four dual matches and six of seven. The Men’s team now stand at 10-4 (1-1) and they face another crucial weekend with ACC rivals No. 13 Wake Forest and No. 25 N.C. State coming into town.

The most impressive win of the week belonged to the Women’s team. The No. 15 Canes hosted the No. 17 Baylor Bears for a match that was expected to come down to the last match. Baylor had recently just taken down No. 9 Northwestern, No. 10 USC and No. 26 Rice. The Canes took the doubles point easily but after Stephanie Wagner and Monique Albuquerque got the score to 3-0, things got pretty close. The Bears were slowly starting to make a comeback on the other courts when senior Melissa Bolivar ended it at the No. 5 singles position in a match that could have easily gone into a third set.

The Canes’ Women’s team are now 11-2 (6-0) and will face Princeton next before the ACC schedule resumes. With solid performances like they had against Baylor, they should find themselves back in the top 10 very soon.

Next matches:

Men’s team: March 21, Friday 4 a.m. vs. No. 13 Wake Forest

Women’s team: March 19, Wednesday vs. Princeton