A valiant effort from the seventh seeded Southeastern University Fire fell short as the #2 Keiser Seahawks concluded the Fire's season in the NAIA Quarterfinals with a 4-0 victory.
The final score did not speak to the fight that the Fire put forth. Doubles went the way of the Seahawks as Violet and Patricia Apisah defeated
Flaminia Guidantoni and
Ingrid Montserrat 6-1 in flight one.
Flight two was closely contested as Keiser's Ecaterina Visnevscaia and Vanja Vidanovic outlasted Southeastern's
Martina Picardi and
Simone Simas 6-4.
Flight three went unfinished as Yeva Kononovych and Isabella Perez took the lead over
Neleah Neiberline and
Irene Lopez of Southeastern 6-5.
Singles was a battle unto the end. The first and second line went in favor of the Seahawks as V. Apisah won a commanding 6-0, 6-0 victory over Picardi in line one. Line two was won by Visnevscaia by retirement as she led Neiberline 6-0, 4-0.
The final blow came in line six as Vidanovic outlasted Lopez, sealing the game for Keiser with a 6-4, 6-1 victory.
Lines three, four, and five went unfinished as Guidantoni led P. Apisah in line three 7-6 (7-4), 0-2. Line four was held by Kononovych who was on top of Montserrat, 7-5, 2-3, and line five was in the third set as Simas was battling back over Perez 6-1, 2-6, 2-1.
Head Coach
Drew Dickens was interviewed at the end of the game, and had only positive things to say about the team and the effort showed on the courts, "I think this team has a ton of grit, and we know that this team is never going to lose a match easily, you're are going to have to work extremely hard and going to have to be out for a very long time competing against us. I'm very proud of this group of ladies, and the seniors we are going to lose are irreplaceable."
The Fire concluded the season with a 15-7 record after making the NAIA Quarterfinals for the third straight year.
