LAKELAND, Fla. – In the toughest NAIA match-up since the final day of January, Irene Parigi pushed Southeastern University ahead and Alessia Ciampi sealed the 4-3 victory over No. 12 LSU-Alexandria.
Starting off the day, SEU secured the doubles point. Isabella Bolivar Garces and Parigi posted the flight two doubles win over LSU-Alexandria's Kanu Rajawat/Panaggio, 6-2. The top flight saw Carlotta Nonnis Marzano and Ciampi grind out a 6-4 win over Nahia Echaide/Joline Roesch to secure the team doubles point.
In the first of two ranked singles pairing, the Fire's No. 28 ranked Nonnis Marzano scored the day's fastest win, 6-0, 6-3 over No. 33 Echaide for a 2-0 home lead.
The Generals weren't done, as they won the next two singles matches. SEU's Chloe Do Lago fell to LSU-A's Roesch in the sixth spot, 6-1, 6-1 trimming the Fire lead to 2-1.
At second singles, the Generals' No. 52 Rajawat battled SEU's No. 44 Bolivar Garces in one of the three tightly-contested singles scores. Rajawat edged out Garces by a 6-4, 6-4 final, tying the match at two.
With the match still tied, Parigi had no problem with the Generals' Gianna Panaggio in fourth singles. Despite the one-sided final score of 6-0, 6-1, the match still finished fourth of the six singles match-ups due to the length of the games.
More intense drama followed in fifth singles, Ciampi started slow, as LSU-A's Isabella Stuurman took the initial set, 6-2. Ciampi turned up the heat in the second set and determined she would make a run, scoring a key 6-3 win to tie the match and held the momentum to take the final set, 6-1. The SEU win was the fourth of the match, sealing the team win.
Neleah Neiberline kept the intense matches going in the final singles match to be completed. In the third singles bout, Belen Blasco had just enough to best Neiberline 6-4 and then a second-set tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-5), giving the Generals their third win and the final match score of 4-3.
With the win, the fourth-ranked Fire claimed their fourth straight. It was also the team's fourth victory over ranked opponents in past five match-ups and first win against LSU-A in program history. The Generals claimed the first two meetings of the programs during the 2022 and 2023 campaigns.
SEU takes a quick break on Thursday before a big weekend of hosting No. 14 St. Thomas on Friday and No. 1 Keiser on Saturday. Both matches start at 1 p.m.
