AVE MARIA, Fla. – The Fire kept rolling on Friday. Southeastern University grabbed the double team point and then gave up only 11 games on the way to their seventh shutout of the season, 4-0, over Ave Maria University in men's tennis action today.
After taking the first two doubles sets, SEU saw both Gonzalo Fernandez and Gustavo Rubio make quick work of their fifth and sixth singles matches before NAIA Player of the Week Diego Menendez sealed the win in his top flight match.
Menendez and Piero Fernandez completed the first doubles win at the top position by a 6-2 score over Ave Maria's team of A.J. Duggan and Joao Almeida. Gonzalo Fernandez and Javier Gallego captured the second spot final of 6-4 against Andrew Solvia and Danil Mishchanin.
Gonzalo Fernandez and Rubio were equally successful in the first two singles matches. Gonzalo took down the Gyrenes' Ginamarco Punzo, 6-1, 6-1. At sixth singles, Rubio matched the final scores (6-1, 6-1) over Ameida.
Menendez had a battle but he prevailed in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, over Duggan and adding another win to his school record.
The rest of the day's matches did not finish.
Piero Fernandez held an early third-set advantage, 2-1, after he split the first two second-singles sets (3-6, 6-3) against Pedro Garcia.
Gallego was in the first-set tiebreaker, 7-6 (2-2), versus Juan Garcia when it was stopped. Griffin's fifth-singles bout with Juan Garcia in a tight score of 6-2 and then 6-7 (0-1) when play was halted.
With the win, SEU improved to a perfect 10-0 (3-0 SUN), while picking up their fourth win over a ranked opponent this year. Ave Maria dropped to 5-6 (1-3 SUN).
SEU heads over to Hialeah for a Saturday morning match against Florida National University. First serve will be at 10 a.m.
