MOBILE, Ala. – The Fire added a pair of weekend tough matches and passed the first test. Southeastern University kept its unblemished record going in a shutout, 4-0, over No. 13 Dillard University on the men's tennis courts.
Tied at 1-1 in the doubles play, Javier Gallego and Gonzalo Fernandez pulled out a 6-4 second doubles decision over Dillard's Jesus Rodriguez and Siddarth Arya for the team point. Gallego and Gonzalo Fernandez continued to lead the Fire in the afternoon with the first two singles wins while top-singles Diego Menendez completed the Fire victory.
With the victory, SEU (13-0) recorded its fifth win over a ranked opponent. It was also the Fire's third shutout in a row and ninth of their 13 wins of the spring season.
Menendez and Piero Fernandez began the doubles action with a 6-0 first doubles final over the Bleu Devils' Nour Ibrahim/Yassine Benjemaa. Dillard tied the doubles as it won the third spot with the team of Daniel Mankowski/Daniel Sich over SEU's Gustavo Rubio/Sam Reeder in a 6-1 total.
Following Gallego and Gonzalo Fernandez taking the doubles-deciding match, the two Fire players set up the team for victory.
Gallego made quick work and dropped only three games to Rodriguez at third singles in a 6-1 and 6-2 match.
At sixth singles, Gonzalo Fernandez made it tough for Dillard to come back. Fernandez took care of Sich by identical scores of 6-2 and 6-2.
With three other singles matches headed to potential third sets, Menendez took away any doubt. Menendez captured the first set, 6-2, over Benjemaa, before he edged a 7-5 close second set for the SEU win.
In the three unfinished matches:
At second singles, Piero Fernandez was battling back from dropping the first set (1-6) and held a 5-4 advantage over Ibrahim.
Alejandro Orihuela took Dillard's Arya to the first-set tiebreaker, 7-6 (7-5), and won the first game of set number two when play was halted.
After he fell by a 5-7 first set, Mark Griffin held a 4-1 lead in the second set over Mankowski for fifth singles when play was stopped.
SEU completes its tough weekend on Sunday when they take on No. 8 Xavier University of New Orleans starting at 12 p.m EST.
