It was a valiant effort from the seventh seeded Fire men's tennis team but unfortunate circumstances ended the game early, and moved the #10 William Woods Owls on to the quarterfinals with a 4-1 victory.
Doubles went quickly in favor of the Owls as Ben Grumley and Zinovi Nahirniak defeated
Bruno Pessoa and
Diego Menendez 6-2 in flight one. Flight two came soon after, also in favor of the Owls, as Vitek Subert and Vaclav Schneider took down
Piero Fernandez and
Mark Griffin 6-4.
Flight three went unfinished with Felix Diedrichs and Andres Kolejewska leading
Victor Olivera and
Alejandro Orihuela 5-4.
Singles started slowly for Southeastern as Menendez and Orihuela were the only individuals for the Fire to win a first set. Menendez handled line two easily with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Grumley to tie the match at 1-1.
Lines four and six finished next, both in favor of William Woods as Kolejewska defeated Griffin in line six 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). In line five, Olivera dropped the first set to Subert, roared back in the second set, but was unable to hold on as Subert won 6-1, 2-6, 6-2.
The final blow came when Orihuela went down with injury in the second set of a contest he was leading 7-6 (7-5), 1-1. The retirement clinched the match for William Woods who move on to play Tennessee Wesleyan.
Lines one and four were unfinished, in line one Pessoa was on the brink of victory leading, 1-6, 6-0, 5-2. Line four was tight, Fernandez of Southeastern and Stepan Mach were battling hard at 6-4, 4-5 with Fernandez holding the set advantage.
With the loss, the Fire conclude their season with a 18-7 overall record.
