Orlando, Fla. - The Georgia State men's tennis team (0-2) fought hard but fell in the end to No. 74 UCF, 4-3, on Sunday. Sophomore Victor Valente improves to 2-0 on the season with his victory at No. 1 singles.

The Panthers started the match by losing the first doubles match, 8-5, after Vincent Verpeaux/Gabe Townes lost to Blaze Schwartz/Joe Delinks. Georgia State won the second doubles match when Victor Valente/Breon Badger defeated Eugene Dolgovykh/Matthew Zachary, 8-6. The Knights would win take the doubles point, after winning at No. 3 doubles.

Georgia State quickly evened the match, after junior Juan Pablo Gutierrez won in straight sets over Leonel Vivas, 6-3, 6-2. Gutierrez is now 1-1 in singles for the season.

Each team would win two more matches to set up the deciding point at No. 5 singles. Valente won in straight sets over Blaze Schwartz, 6-4, 6-3, to earn his second straight victory on the season. Sophomore Lucas Santana also won in straight sets at No. 6 singles over Mario Samson, 6-4, 6-1.

Freshman Vincent Verpeaux dropped the first set 6-3 and battled to a 6-6 second set to setup a tie breaker for the match. Verpeaux fell behind 6-1 but rallied back to even the score at 6-6. Joe Delinks (UCF) won the next two points to clinch the victory for the Knights and win the second set 7-6 (8-6).

"We battled today and showed great improvement from yesterday," said head coach Chase Hodges.  "A 4-3 result on the road against UCF without one of our top guys (Thomas Cook) is solid.  I continue to be impressed by Victor Valente who picked up a great win for us at No. 1 singles."

Georgia State returns to action next weekend as they head to Tennessee to take on Lipscomb in Nashville on Friday at 6 p.m.