Liberty to Face No. 36 South Florida and Florida Atlantic in Road Matches
3/9/2021 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Live Scoring: Liberty at No. 36 South Florida
Live Scoring: Liberty at Florida Atlantic
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The Flames men's tennis team will head to Florida for a pair of matches this week at South Florida and at Florida Atlantic.
Liberty will square off with the 36th-ranked South Florida Bulls, Wednesday afternoon at 1:30 at the USF Varsity Tennis Courts in Tampa, Fla. The Flames will then head to Boca Raton, Fla., to take on the Florida Atlantic Owls, Friday morning. Match time is 9:30 a.m. at the FAU Tennis Complex.
Liberty brings an 8-4 overall record into the match and has won three straight and seven of its last eight contests. The Flames collected two home victories last week at the Liberty Tennis Complex, a 5-2 triumph over Richmond (Thursday) and a 7-0 sweep of Radford (Saturday).
South Florida is 6-2 on the season and carries a four-match winning streak into tomorrow's match against Liberty. The Bulls defeated North Florida and Florida Atlantic by identical 5-2 scores, last Saturday and Sunday. FAU is 4-4 on the year, including an 0-1 mark on the road and 4-3 record at home.
Liberty and USF are meeting for the first time. The Flames and Florida Atlantic met one previously on Feb. 5, 2015, a 4-0 victory for the Owls in Miami, Fla.
Flames News and Notes
• Liberty will be playing a ranked foe for the third time this season when it takes on No. 36 USF tomorrow. The Flames took on No. 22 Virginia (Jan. 17) and No. 6 Texas (Jan. 22) at the beginning of the season. Additionally, Liberty faced Arizona (Jan. 23), who is now ranked No. 18 in the country.
• Liberty is currently among others receiving votes in the Oracle/ITA Division I Men's Rankings, which features the top-50 teams in the nation. FAU is also among others receiving votes.
• The Flames have featured five of the first seven ASUN Player of the Week honorees. Nicaise Muamba and Rafael Marques Da Silva have won the award twice each, while Josh Wilson received the honor once.
• Muamba earned his 50th singles victory at Liberty, last Thursday versus Richmond. His milestone victory came in three sets versus the Spiders' Matt Fernandez (7-5, 4-6, 6-1). Muamba followed up that win with another No. 1 singles triumph on Saturday against Radford's Yevhen Sirous (7-6 (2), 6-2)).
• Liberty's Thando Longwe-Smit earned his first two collegiate singles wins last week, both at No. 6 singles. The redshirt freshman's first victory came in straight sets (6-4, 6-2) against Richmond's Sebastian Miano. On Saturday, Longwe-Smit bested Radford's Aditya Balsekar 7-5, 6-4.
• The Flames are 5-0 in matches after winning the doubles point and 3-4 in contests in which they have lost the doubles point.
