The Florida A&M men’s tennis team came out empty handed against Troy University, losing 4-3 in a non-conference match at the Lunsford Tennis Complex. This was a disappointing loss for the Rattlers and coach Carl Goodman, knowing that this could’ve been another victory under the team’s belt.
“That’s how the ball bounces every once in a while. Just one game cost us the whole match,” coach Carl Goodman said. “The team fought hard.”
The Rattlers lost the doubles point early on in the match, losing two out of three matches. Temuera Asafu-Adjaye and Maurice Wamokowa were defeated by Mario Rolemberg and Branko Weber 8-3 in the first set. Takura Happy and Chidi Gabriel won the number two spot 8-3 over Niklas Jonsson and Sami Ghorbel in the second set. Levan Clark and Michael Moore lost to Anas Rouchdi and Jamie Eccleton 8-6 in the last set.
“Takura and Chidi played extremely well in doubles, I think they took out one of their top doubles team,” Goodman said.
The team moved into the singles split 3-3. Gabriel won at the number four spot14-3. Happy won the number two spot 4-6, 6-5 and Asafu-Adjaye won at the number six spot 6-3, 6-4. Clark lost at number one to Rouchdi. Wamokowa lost at number three to Weber and Moore lost at number five to Rolemberg.
The match took an unfortunate turn when Clark hurt his knee in the number three doubles. With him being a significant player, the team took a hard blow with his injury. The team has been practicing to the best of their ability and went against Troy with the mindset to win.
“He was playing today and he heard something pop in his knee pop and then we went down on two service breaks,” Goodman said. “He got startled basically in the doubles and never could get back on track for the singles.”
Although the tennis team did not take home the win they held on strong and with the season record at 14-5, still remain good. This was a tough one for the Rattlers but they came together and learned some valuable lessons from the match.
“No need crying over spilled milk,” Goodman said. “There going to go through some ups and downs and additionally to see how they respond during certain situations.”