Fire Men's tennis carried on their winning ways this afternoon, welcoming a Sun Conference opponent, the Ave Maria Gyrenes to Lakeland, and defeating them in a quick manner 4-0 to advance to 12-3 on the season. The Gyrenes fell to 2-5.
Southeastern claimed the early point advantage in doubles, however, they had to win the third match after splitting the first two contests. The newly ranked
Mark Griffin and
Piero Fernandez won comfortably over Juan and Pedro Garcia 6-2 in the third flight. The #39 Gaston Erhardt and Anderson Duggan of the Gyrenes shocked the #7
Diego Menendez and
Bruno Pessoa in a 6-3 upset.
Alejandro Orihuela who has not lost since playing against William Woods played with Victor Pilla and overcame Ave Maria's Joao Almeida and Tom Alias 6-2.
Singles was all Fire from start to finish. One set went to extras in a match that went unfinished, but that was as close as the Gyrenes got. Menendez, thanks to his dominant play, earned himself a new, higher ranking in singles, landing at #21 and with his new ranking he defeated Alias in the second line 6-0, 6-1.
Griffin was next with a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win over Almeida, and to claim the match victory for the Fire Pilla defeated Pedro Garcia 6-2, 6-0.
Three singles matches went unfinished, reranked at #15, Pessoa was leading #47 Erhardt 6-1, 2-2 in line one. Orihuela was ahead in extras in the first set over Duggan 6-6 (2-1), and in the fifth line Fernandez commanded a strong 6-3, 5-1 lead over Juan Garcia.
The Fire take to the road twice next week with tough Sun Conference road matchups against St. Thomas in Miami Gardens on Friday. March 23 will be another incredibly tough competitor, as the #6 Fire travel to West Palm for a top ten contest with #3 Keiser University Saturday at 2 p.m.
