ROME, Ga. -- No. 3 SEU Men's Tennis gave No. 1 Keiser everything they could handle Sunday afternoon in the third-place match at the ITA NAIA Indoor Nationals. With the match tied 3-3, Keiser used a huge push in extras to steal a 4-3 victory.
With a massive upset on their mind, Southeastern came out firing in doubles. No. 18
Gonzalo Fernandez and
Pedro De La Riva ran away with a 6-2, flight three victory over Andrew Kracjik and Andrew Reznik.
Keiser responded next with Didrik Liljekvist and Matthew Rubas running past No. 6
Piero Fernandez and
Javier Gallego on flight one, 6-3.
For the first time in program history against Keiser, the doubles point went the way of the Fire.
Leonardo Chiari and
Aristeidis Lafazanos securing a 6-4 win over Shaheed Alam and Oliver King on flight two.
With the early point secured, SEU went back to work, but found themselves in an early hole. As Liljekvist coasted to a 6-1, 6-2 win over No. 11
Piero Fernandez on line one. Following suit came Keiser's Matthew Dubas, as he defeated Chiari, 6-1, 6-2, on line five.
A line three win from Keiser's No. 19 Felipe Rivadeneira over De La Riva gave the Seahawks match point, 3-1.
This was when the Fire made their push.
Gonzalo Fernandez brought SEU within one, upsetting No. 26 Matej Laibl, 6-1, 6-4 on line four.
No. 13
Javier Gallego leveled the score at 3-3 with an upset of the No. 2-ranked Shaheed Alam, 6-4, 7-5 on line two.
With the match tied, all eyes turned to court six. Keiser's Oliver leading Southeastern's Lafazanos 5-3 in the third set. Lafazanos worked him backwards, forcing extras, even generating a 4-0 lead in extras. However, King showed the resolve of the No. 1 team in the NAIA, fending off the upset eager Fire, winning the third place decider 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6).
The Fire now turn their attention to the regular season, heading to Sarasota for a duel with New College of Florida on Feb. 25 at 1 p.m.
