MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – No. 4 Southeastern claimed their eighth straight win this afternoon, knocking off Sun Conference foe No. 21 St. Thomas 4-2.
Southeastern struck first in doubles on flight one as the No. 13 tandem of
Javier Gallego and
Piero Fernandez earned a 6-4 win over Ivan Menendez and Pablo Olmedo.
However, St. Thomas responded by taking the next two courts. Mariano Hasenkopf and Arthur Bugeaud defeated
Gonzalo Fernandez and
Pedro De La Riva, 6-3, on flight two, while Maxime Navrochti and Pierluigi Cruypenninck soon after secured a 6-3 win over
Aristeidis Lafazanos and
Gustavo Rubio on flight three to claim the doubles point.
Trailing 1-0, the Fire would need four courts in singles to take the match.
No. 16
Gonzalo Fernandez continued his winning ways, with a commanding 6-1, 6-1 victory over Bugeaud on line four. Advancing his personal record to 7-0.
De La Riva followed with a strong 6-4, 6-2 win on line three against Menendez to give Southeastern a 2-1 advantage. Extending his own personal win streak to eight straight.
St. Thomas picked up its second point on line one, where Hasenkopf outlasted No. 12
Piero Fernandez in a hard-fought match, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3.
This was the final point of the match for the Bobcats, as SEU's No. 9 Gallego gave the Fire match point on line two, grinding out a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, victory over Olmedo.
The clincher came on line five as Fire freshman
Nikolas Kumria rallied after dropping the opening set to defeat Cruypenninck, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Securing the 4-2 victory for Southeastern and maintaining his perfect record at 6-0.
One match remained unfinished on line six, where Lafazanos was a third set showdown with Navrochti after splitting the first two sets 4-6, 6-3, 3-4.
Now 9-2 on the season, and 2-0 in the Sun Conference, the Fire turn their attention to arguably the most important match before the postseason. Taking on No. 3 Keiser tomorrow at 1 p.m. in West Palm.
