LAKELAND, Fla. — It took just under two hours at the Beerman Family Tennis Complex for the No. 4 Fire Men's Tennis program to end No. 15 Oakland City's hopes of an upset.
The Southeastern doubles clinched the doubles point with 6-3 victories on flights one and three. The lone unfinished flight featured the No. 15 and No. 18 NAIA doubles teams, with the latter featuring SEU's
Gonzalo Fernandez and
Pedro De La Riva clinging to a 5-4 lead.
The match played to clinch, with a short match in mind the Southeastern singles went to work.
Pedro De La Riva put the Fire up 2-0 quickly, winning 6-2, 6-0 over Juanes Pinto on line four.
No. 11
Javier Gallego came next, playing up tempo, and notching a 6-3, 6-3 win on line two over the Mighty Oaks Alejo Chlpac. Pushing Oakland City to the brink, granting the Fire a 3-0 cushion.
The final nail in the coffin came on line five as freshman
Nikolas Kumria continued his winning ways with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Luis Cordoba. Granting the Fire a fourth straight win, and advancing his own personal record to 4-0.
With the match clinched, lines one, three, and six came to a halt. Southeastern's
Gonzalo Fernandez was up a set on line three 6-3, 2-1 over Samarbir Sidhu.
Aristeidis Lafazanos was up a set, but trailing in the second 6-2, 2-3 to Louki Nivarlet, and OCU's Jose Andres Perez Perez led No. 11
Piero Fernandez 7-6 (7-4), 2-0.
The now 6-2 Fire will return to the USTA Tennis Complex on Thursday for a duel with Midland, first serve being at 3 p.m.
