UMBC

G. Berret

Baltimore – UMBC sophomore Gaulthier Berret (Lagny Sur Marne, France) rallied from a set down to win at No. 5 singles, capping a Retriever rally which culminated in a 4-3 victory over Temple at the UMBC Tennis Courts.

UMBC improved to 12-5 on the campaign, while Temple lost for just the second time in their last eight matches and dropped to 16-7. The match took nearly five and a half hours to complete.

The Owls took the doubles point, edging UMBC at the Nos. 1 and 3 slots. The Retriever No. 2 duo of junior Rasid Winklaar (Willemstad, Curacao) and senior Mwali Phiri (Yonkers, N.Y.) outlasted Dmitry Vizhunov/Stanislav Stekolshikov, 8-2. But the Temple No. 1 duo of Filip Rams/Taylor Hairston broke UMBC junior Cristian Hodel (Calarasi, Romania) in the final game to edge Hodel and junior Joe Adewumi (Phoenix, Ariz), 8-6. The deciding match at No. 3 was on serve through 12 games, when the Temple tandem of Mansur Gishkaev/Andrey Morozov broke UMBC sophomore Adam Duprat (Bobigny, France) and went onto an 8-6 victory over Duprat and Berret.

The first five singles matches were decided in straight sets. Phiri and Winklaar went 2-0 as the both players won 6-2, 6-3 decisions at Nos. 6 and 2 respectively. Adewumi provided the third singles point, besting Hairston at the No. 4 slot, 6-4, 6-3.

The visitors captured matches at the Nos. 1 and 3 positions, setting the stage for the match between Berret and Gishkaev. The Temple junior took the first set, 6-3, and had three match points at 5-4 in the second set. But Berret drew even to deuce and fended off three additional match points in the game to tie the set at 5-5. He forced the set to a tie-breaker and cruised in the breaker, 7-1.

Berret was leading, 5-3, 40-0 in the deciding set when Gishkaev was defaulted for abusive language towards an official.

Berret also won the deciding match in three sets in the Feb. 12 victory over Old Dominion.