OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The fight was unquestionable for the No. 14-ranked Flagler men's tennis team Friday morning versus No. 9 Hawai'i Pacific; however, the result wasn't where the Saints would have liked as they fell 4-1 in the first round of the ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championship.
 
"We just need to, in certain moments, have a little bit more fortune" Flagler Director of Tennis and men's tennis coach Thomas Hipp said," I would say. We were playing hard and competed well. We pushed until the very end. The support was great and every guys tired hard — at that point, it's just a little unfortunate that we come up short.
 
"We need to make some adjustments when we lose the first set, and that is something I will discuss with my team. When we lose the first set, we cannot just play the same style. We have to find something to change and value the opponent a little more. The opponent is capable of doing this against us, but we need to be sometimes able to do this to the opponent."

Flagler (1-3) will face No. 5 Saint Leo, who was knocked down by Columbus State, in day two ITA action Saturday at 9 a.m. back at the OKC Tennis Center. The Saints recently just faced the Lions as they narrowly fell 4-3 on the road. This matchup would make for Flagler's fourth straight top-10 matchup.
 
In doubles, the Saints were close in No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, but the combos of Felipe Carvalho/Rasmus Jonsson and Tommaso Bagon/Rodrigo Carvalho were unable to find the turning moment. The same could be said for the Saints in singles with the expectation being No. 47 Luca Bolla and his straight-sets, 6-2 and 6-4, victory over No. 44 individual Benjamin Loccisano.
 
Bolla was able to take his set one momentum and put it to good use, while his teammates Carvalho, Jiri Jenicek and Jonsson secured that first set win but couldn't build on it as they lost in the third set. Hipp is hopeful his team can use those opening-set wins to set an example of what it is capable of and translate it late into matches.
 
"One through four, we won the first set and played pretty well there and it looked good, then five and six, we lost the first set," Hipp said. "The difference was the opponent was able to turn around matches. One through four, we win the first, then three of my guys lose the second, but at five and six, nobody is able to turn around the match. I was hoping one could win the second set to make it to the third. This is the difference maker when we play the tough teams — we are not as good as the opponent in turn-around matches. If we can kind of fix that, we are able to be the best, I would say."
 
 
Singles competition
1. #47 Luca Bolla (FLG) def. #44 Benjamin Loccisano (HPU) 6-2, 6-4
2. Ondrej Ctverak (HPU) vs. Rodrigo Carvalho (FLG) 4-6, 6-3, 1-2, unfinished
3. Marcel Hornung (HPU) vs. Jiri Jenicek (FLG) 3-6, 7-6, 3-2, unfinished
4. Ryohei Arai (HPU) def. Rasmus Jonsson (FLG) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
5. Matej Panik (HPU) def. Felipe Carvalho (FLG) 6-2, 6-2
6. Cheng-Chieh Wang (HPU) def. Tommaso Bagon (FLG) 6-2, 6-1

Doubles competition
1. Ondrej Ctverak/Matej Panik (HPU) def. Luca Bolla/Jiri Jenicek (FLG) 6-1
2. Marcel Hornung/Benjamin Loccisano (HPU) def. Felipe Carvalho/Rasmus Jonsson (FLG) 6-4
3. Ryohei Arai/Cheng-Chieh Wang (HPU) vs. Tommaso Bagon/Rodrigo Carvalho (FLG) 3-5, unfinished

Match Notes:
Flagler 1-3; National ranking #14
Hawai'i Pacific 5-3; National ranking #9
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (5,6,1,4)

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