LAKELAND, Fla. – The Fire had their final tuneup before the biggest match of the spring. Southeastern University remained undefeated as they blanked St. Thomas, 4-0, in men's tennis action on Friday afternoon.
SEU used its strength at the top of their lineup and made short work of the Bobcats. Both Diego Menendez and Piero Fernandez won twice to highlight the effort. The two teammates paired together for a 6-1 win over St. Thomas' Jeremy Diaz and Luca Vogel at the top doubles.
With the doubles point, Menendez won 6-0, 6-0 over Diaz in top-flight singles action. Piero Fernandez gave up only two games to Vogel in the second singles contest, winning 6-2, 6-0.
Mark Griffin finished the match with his fourth singles win.
At second doubles, Javier Gallego and Gonzalo Fernandez gave the team point to SEU with a 6-2 margin over the visitors' Giacomo Nava/Leon Emich.
Griffin produced the 6-4, 6-1 final tally over Emich for the final completed match.
The four other match-ups were stopped while in progress.
Griffin and Alejandro Orihuela were almost finished over the Seahawks' Fabrizio Moreno and Jan Gewaltig team as the score was 5-1 when it was stopped.
In the third singles, Gallego was leading Moreno 6-4, 4-2.
Gonzalo Fernandez held a set advantage (6-2) but Nava led the second set, 5-4.
Sam Reeder took the sixth-singles first set (6-4), while Gewaltig won the first game of the latter set.
With the win, SEU improves to 9-0 (1-0 SUN) as they shut out an opponent for the sixth time this year. It was also the Fire's fifth win in a row over the Bobcats and second shutout in the series. SEU moves on to host No. 3-ranked Keiser University on Saturday in a 1 p.m. first serve.
