Fire Men's Tennis dealt with tough competition this afternoon, sweeping the contest 7-0 over Cornerstone University of Michigan even though the individual matches were tight.
The Fire struck quickly winning all three doubles contests.
Mark Griffin and
Piero Fernandez again finished first in 6-3 victory over Joaquin Micheloni and Daniel Afaro in the third flight. In similar fashion Victor Pilla and
Alejandro Orihuela quickly dispatched Jaden Bender and Jose Olive 6-2 in the second flight.
In the top flight, the match was everything expected from Southeastern's and Cornerstone's top players. SEU's
Bruno Pessoa and
Diego Menendez claimed an exciting 7-6 (7-5) victory in a tiebreaker over CU's Santiago Castellanos and Luis Azurduy to gain the first point of the match for the Fire.
Single's was just as entertaining. #45 Menendez made short work of Azurduy 6-1, 6-2 in the second line.
Sam Reeder did like work, continuing the shut out for the Fire 6-0, 6-2 over Alejandro Santana in the sixth line.
Next to finish was Fernandez as he went to extras in the first game and then blanked Afaro in the second round, winning 7-5, 6-0 in the fourth flight. Orihuela carried on with his undefeated spring break, knocking off Micheloni 6-1, 6-4 in the third line. In the fifth line, Griffin outlasted Bender 7-5, 6-4 to push the lead to 6-0 for the Fire.
The first line was the most intense as two ranked athletes, #28 Pessoa and #30 Castellanos battled hard, riding emotions into extras, Pessoa would come back and dominate extras, completing the shutout for the Fire with a 7(10)-6(3), 6-4.
When asked about the keys to victory, Coach
Drew Dickens of Southeastern said, "Even though the score said 7-0, that's not how the match felt".
The team effort aided the Fire to a 9-3 overall record with their seventh win in a row, Cornerstone fell to 6-7.
#11 Middle Georgia State comes to visit on Saturday. When asked what the focus should be for the top 15 contest, Coach Dickens responded, "We need to control the energy, especially against a team like that, if we don't we are going to be in trouble."
The first serve is at 11 a.m.
